The idea of ​​establishing a zoo in Prague was basically rejected by no one, but it was almost overcome by protracted disputes over its location. The most persistent fighter for its existence was Professor Jiří Janda (1865-1938), an avid ornithologist who was met as a little girl by the future actress Zita Kabátová.

She lived with her parents in Úvoz No. 5, in the same house as the high school professor she visited. “He lived on the ground floor, the house had a garden, and when I went to play there, he always showed me an animal. He bred various species of exotic birds, but also small lizards and all kinds of reptiles. I am grateful to him for liking the animals, later I contributed financially to the zoo, “Kabátová recalled.

Janda is the author of many books on birds and other zoos that have become his life’s theme. He met them in Dresden, London and Versailles, and when it was finally about to build the Prague Zoo in Troy, he bought a house there in advance and with his wife they took care of the first animals to confirm for the future garden.

He had parrots, a roe deer and a four-month-old lioness Šárka there, which the owner of the Austrian Circus Rebernigg gave to President TG Masaryk, but he refused her.

In May 1926, the Economic, Shopping and Construction Cooperative Zoological Garden was founded, which ordered a plaster model of the future zoo from the architect Karel Mašek. It even includes a petrol station, which would take visitors along the selected route. In the end, the more economical option wins over the lack of funds.

The first part of the garden was inaugurated on September 28, 1931, and Professor Janda became its first director at the age of 67. Initially, eight hectares were made available in the lower part of the complex. Behind a simple box office and a covered entrance, visitors found a wolfhound, which served the very first animal population, the wolf Lotta from Subcarpathian Russia, and a large aviary of birds of prey, the rear back wall formed a rock massif.

It was then the largest exhibition of its kind in Europe. Behind the wolf enclosure, a wooden house was built, which was named Šárka’s Pavilion after the already mentioned lioness Šárka, who lived here with other lions, tigers and temporarily with baboons. In 1935, the beasts were moved to a new lioness under the rock and the house was inhabited by exotic birds.

Shortly after the zoo opened, a pavilion for elephants, hippos and rhinos was built. The rectangular building with elevated enclosures and indoor and outdoor pools became a home for the only one-year-old Indian baby elephant before its completion. He was followed by hippo Petr and rhino Max, both from the Kludský circus, which went bankrupt and sold out the menagerie. Exercises with elephants were performed in the pavilion and was always one of the most visited. For the first few years, the Baby Elephant walked freely in the garden only when accompanied by its caregiver.

The artist and humorist Jiří Winter-Neprakta (1924-2011) recalled the beginnings of the Prague Zoo: “My father glazed all the terrariums in the garden with his worker, and I enthusiastically accompanied them. From an early age, I played with animals in every way. As soon as it happened, the alligator threw his tail too hard, smashed the glass, and immediately the glazers hurried to glaze it so as not to run away. I went with them, let the lizards out on the floor, and enjoyed how frightened the visitors came. It never occurred to me that some animal might hurt me. “

This is where Neprakt’s lifelong hobby in animals of all kinds was born, and he was eventually commissioned to draw a series of tables for the zoo with other acquaintances known as Feeding Prohibited. He took it in his own way – he added humorous comments to the pictures. A year after the opening of the garden, the first Převalský horses, stallion Ali and mare Minka, came here, and on March 21, 1933, a foal, mare Heluš, was born to them.

It was the Prague Zoo that saved this Asian “prakon”. In 1959, when Zdeněk Veselovský (1928-2006) became the director, the first international symposium for the rescue of Převalský’s horses was held at the zoo. Based on the successes so far, the garden has been commissioned to keep an international studbook and it is still in its care.

For this public, the connection of popular personalities with the zoo has always been popular, which has taken place practically since its beginnings. Already in 1934, the king of comedians Vlasta Burian donated a pair of sea lions to the Prague Zoo, who were named after the then popular children’s book Hýta a Batul. Vanha’s fishmonger sent sea fish to Troja for them.

Messrs. Voskovec and Werich again donated the donkey to Bubi, originally purchased for the purposes of the play Donkey and Shadow, which they performed at the Liberated Theater. It is said that the breeder was led by the breeder every day in the evening to a performance in Vodičkova Street from the nearby stables of the post horses in Jindřišská Street. Later, he drove children’s visitors around the garden.

In the 60’s and 70’s, the favorite godparents of animals included Karel Gott, Waldemar Matuška, Jiřina Bohdalová, but also Jiří Suchý, who is only two days younger than the garden. He baptized Tingla and Tangl teddy bears here when Jonah and Tingltangl played Semaphore.

Even historical events did not escape animals. During World War II, we have to survive the zoo only thanks to our own farm, when it grew vegetables and other crops as animal feed. Meat for beasts was imported from rural slaughterhouses, and some employees made money on it with improvised circus performances. It took place first in a canvas, then a wooden circus tent, and finally until 1951.

Perhaps the most suitable event during the war years became the first ever artificial breeding of a polar bear in the world. In 1942, the bear Nora gave birth to two females. The older cub had no appetite for life and died, but the younger Ilun prospered until six months of age, when it did not survive a fall from a tree.

The lower part of the complex was flooded in mid-March 1940, which fortunately passed without loss of animal life. The floods in August 2002 had much worse consequences, when the elephant enclosure turned into one deep lake and the Kadir elephant eventually had to be killed in it. The same fate befell the hippo Lentilka.

Today’s Prague Zoo differs from the original one at almost every step. The half-kilometer-long trail winding around the Valley of the Elephants, which was opened in 2013, offers a lot of experiences.

The zoo offers night tours, during which you can observe animals with thermal cameras and other special equipment. The hippo pavilion, in turn, allows observation of its inhabitants below the surface, where you can see through large windows, delimiting the indoor and outdoor pool.

Two years ago, an African house was built, partially sunk into the ground, for a group of northern Nubian giraffes, so we were able to continue.