Tábor Zoo

Tábor 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 Tábor Zoo is Evžen Korec, owner and director of residential development company EKOSPOL, one of the zoo's sponsors.[1]

Tábor Zoological Garden
Date opened30 June 2015
LocationTábor-Větrovy, Czech Republic
Coordinates49.38826°N 14.64898°E / 49.38826; 14.64898
Land area10 ha
No. of species70
MembershipsISIS
Major exhibitsLions, Tigers, Monkeys, Parrots, European bison
Websitewww.zootabor.eu

History

A previous organization called Zoologická zahrada Tábor-Větrovy (Zoological Garden Tábor-Větrovy) 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 Tábor Inc.) but as a new company, owned by Evžen 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 Tábor Zoo, Jak jsem zachránil ZOO v Táboře (How I Rescued Tábor Zoo),[3] co-written with Filip Susanka and released in December 2016.

Endangered animal species

Tábor 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.

Wisent (European Bison) Reintroduction

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 Dostál and Miloslav Jirků 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.

Scientific research

Tábor Zoo hosts a scientific research group focused predominantly on the genetic study of three mammal species: Cane Corso dogs, European bison and American bison. The group has published several research articles, with results describing the inheritance of various traits in dogs, such as the inheritance of the canine hip dysplasia[5] or the inheritance of coat colour in Cane Corso dogs.[6] Their present research is focused on the genetic background of longevity in the three species, and they have described the relationship between coat colour and longevity in Cane Corso dogs[7] and the median longevity of the two bison breeds.[8] The latter results posit a significant difference in median longevity between males and females in both species, in favour of females.

Photogallery
  • Tigers
  • Service building
  • Ara ararauna
  • Lynx in Zoo Tábor
  • Bear in Zoo Tábor

References
  1. "Táborskou zoo zachrání úspěšný developer". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  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 4 July 2017.
  4. "Zoo v Táboře dnes přijala samce zubra evropského z Polska - Ekolist.cz". Ekolist.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  5. "Segregation Analysis of Canine Hip Dysplasia in Cane Corso Italiano Dogs" (PDF).
  6. Korec, Evžen; Hančl, Matyáš; Bydžovská, Marie; Chalupa, Ondřej; Korcová, Jana (2019). "Inheritance of coat colour in the cane Corso Italiano dog". BMC Genetics. 20 (1): 24. doi:10.1186/s12863-019-0731-2. PMC 6398231. PMID 30832561.
  7. Korec, E.; Chalupa, O.; Hančl, M.; Korcová, J.; Bydžovská, M. (2017). "Longevity of Cane Corso Italiano dog breed and its relationship with hair colour". Open Veterinary Journal. 7 (2): 170–173. doi:10.4314/ovj.v7i2.15. PMC 5475242. PMID 28652985.
  8. "Genus Bison Has the Biggest Sex-Related Difference in Longevity among Mammals" (PDF).
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