The Nutcrackers from Taiwan are already in Prague
A breeding pair of scaly mammals will live in the Indonesian jungle exhibition at the Prague Troja Zoo. According to Bobek’s earlier statement, the public will be able to observe these representatives in the endangered species from mid-May. Until then, the animals will be quarantined.
Representatives of Prague and Taipei signed a partnership agreement in 2020. The previous Prague team, led by Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (YES), sought to lend a panda from China, and in 2016 the city also concluded a sister agreement with Beijing. The treaty contained a clause that Prague recognized the unity of China. The current city administration, led by Hrib, wanted to remove this article from the agreement with China, which Beijing refused. Before Prague could terminate the contract, the other party did so.
The Nutcrackers have landed, I repeat, the Nutcrackers have landed.
– Miroslav Bobek (@MiroslavBobek) April 14, 2022
The pod is a scaly mammal that feeds on ants and termites. It is now extinct and one of the most frequently smuggled animals. The most legumes are traded in China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ranks all eight Asian and African legume species among endangered species. An estimated more than a million individuals of this species have been caught in the last ten years. The reason is that members of some traditional Asian and African cultures attribute healing effects to legume scales. The scales are supposed to help with skin problems, arthritis and asthma, for example. But these cone-like mammals also love each other because of the meat. Some Asians consider it a luxury delicacy and a symbol of wealth and higher social status.
The Prague Zoo, together with the zoos in Olomouc and Ostrava, is one of the main partners in the Trenggiling Conservation Program (TCP). It aims, among other things, to reduce the illegal trade in legumes by educating the people of Sumatra and to build a rescue and rehabilitation center for legumes. The legume rescue program is sponsored by the Indonesian PASAL Foundation, which was founded in 2017 by Czech nature conservationists.