Presidential order for the director of the Prague Zoo for saving Převalský’s horse
The Prague Zoo, under the leadership of Miroslav Bobek, is significantly involved in the rescue of Převalský’s horses and their return to their original homeland. Mongolian President Uchná Chürelsüch decided to award the director of the Prague Zoo with the Order of the Polar Star for these activities.
Mongolian President Uchná Chürelsüch awarded Prague Zoo Director Miroslav Bobko the “Order of the Polar Star” – the highest state honor that can be awarded to a foreign national. President’s advisor Erdenecogt Odbajar, while handing over the order on his behalf, thanked him for his extraordinary contribution to the protection of Mongolian nature and the development of Czech-Mongolian relations.
The Prague Zoo under the leadership of Miroslav Bobek, in cooperation with the Army of the Czech Republic and a number of other organizations, carried out a total of nine air transports of Převalský’s horses to the west of Mongolia. In the long term, however, it supports and maintains their return to the wild and is newly preparing their reintroduction project for eastern Mongolia.
“The awarding of the ‘Order of the Polar Star’ is a great honor for the current and past work of the Prague Zoo, which during decades of hard work was responsible for rescuing the Převalský horse and returning it to its original homeland,” said Miroslav Bobek. “This award comes at a time when the twenty-nine mares we transported by CASA planes to Gobi B not only had over eighty foals, but also had ten grandchildren and even their first great-grandchildren. Our mission in Western Mongolia accomplished, we turn east.”
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Miroslav Bobek further stated that the Prague Zoo’s biodiversity protection projects would be unthinkable without the support of the founder and the public. He reminded that five crowns from each entrance to the zoo goes to these projects.
“The award shows how much Mongolia values the Czech Převalský horse reintroduction project,” emphasized the Czech ambassador in Ulaanbaatar, Jan Vytopil. “The project is all the more important in a situation where there is a significant decline in biodiversity everywhere in the world.”
Source: press information of the Prague Zoo
Photo: Malvína Kahleová, Ojúnsajchan Ganbátar and Miroslav Bobek