Tabor Zoo

Tabor Zoological Garden
Date opened 30 June 2015
Location Tabor-Vetrovy, Czech Republic
Coordinates 49°23′18″N 14°38′56″E / 49.38826°N 14.64898°E / 49.38826; 14.64898Coordinates: 49°23′18″N 14°38′56″E / 49.38826°N 14.64898°E / 49.38826; 14.64898
Land area 9-10 ha
No. of species 70
Memberships ISIS
Major exhibits Lions, Tigers, Monkeys, Parrots, European bison
Website www.zootabor.eu

Tabor Zoo (Czech: Zoologická zahrada Tábor) is a zoological garden in the south-east of the city of Tábor, in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, founded in May 2015. At 10 hectares, it is the largest zoo in the South Bohemian Region. The zoo focuses on the protection of endangered species. The managing director of Tabor Zoo is Evzen Korec, owner and director of residential development company EKOSPOL, a major sponsor of the zoo.[1]

History

A previous organization called Zoologická zahrada Tábor-Větrovy (Zoological Garden Tabor-Vetrovy) was founded in July 2011, but was shut down amid financial problems in spring 2015. The zoo continued as Zoologická zahrada Tábor a. s. (Zoological Garden Tabor Inc.) but as a new company, owned by Evzen Korec. The zoo reopened on 30 June 2015.[2] The zoo had 25,000 visitors in the first month after it reopened, and more than 70,000 visitors in 2016.

Korec later wrote a book about his take-over of Tabor Zoo, Jak jsem zachránil ZOO v Táboře (How I Rescued Tabor Zoo),[3] co-written with Filip Susanka and released in December 2016.

Endangered animal species

Tabor Zoo is focused on the protection of endangered species. The zoo's collection currently consists of over 300 animals from 70 species, of which about one quarter are from species classified according to the CITES Convention as endangered, including the Siberian tiger, American black bear, Brown bear, Arctic wolf, Baikal teal, Red-breasted goose, Great grey owl, Snowy owl, and Eurasian eagle-owl. The zoo Tabor also breeds non-endangered species, such as the arctic wolf.

Reintroduction of European bison

In 2016, the zoo began breeding European bison,[4] as part of a Europe-wide effort to reintroduce the species to the wild. Between February and May 2016, a new pen was built with an area of about 0.5 hectares. The zoo decided to breed the genetically most valuable line, known as the Lowland line, which is considered more suitable for reintroduction. They acquired two cows from Nuremberg Zoo (three-year-old Usjana and five-year-old Uselina), and two one-year-old cows (Norma and Norisa) from Insel Usedom Wisentgehege, a private owner in Northern Germany. All four cows were transported to the zoo in May 2016. The breeding bull, Poczekaj, arrived at the zoo in November 2016 from Niepolomice, near Krakow in Poland.

The breeding herd was carefully formed in cooperation with the Czech coordinators of European bison breeding, Dalibor Dostal and Miloslav Jirku from charity Česká krajina, the Biotechnological Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Polish EBSB coordinators (Pedigree database of European bison). The zoo's main goal is to breed European bison calves and return them to the areas intended for the reintroduction of European bison.

References

  1. ↑ "Táborskou zoo zachrání úspěšný developer". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  2. ↑ "Zachráněná táborská zoo se zaměří na ohrožená zvířata". TÝDEN.cz. 24 June 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  3. ↑ a.s., Mladá fronta. "Zápletka jako z filmu: Koupili jsme ZOO - Finance.cz". profit.finance.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  4. ↑ "Zoo v Táboře dnes přijala samce zubra evropského z Polska - Ekolist.cz". Ekolist.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2017-07-04.
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