Directors Introduction
Dear friends
The year of 2006 went by very fast and I am pleased to look back at it.
Perhaps the most important event of the year was the Pilsen ZOO’s 80th anniversary. More than 300 contented guests who took part in this celebration, proved to us, that the Pilsen ZOO ranks among reputable institutions of its kind. On this glorious day (6th September) we opened a number of large expositions of the North American zoogeographical area.
In June an interesting exposition of Siberian avifauna was opened in a log cabin.
The following constructions and reconstructions were started during the past year:
The centre of ecological education and an old Czech restaurant at the Luftnerka farmhouse, the Sonora Desert exposition and the Madagascar Pavilion (the last phase), quarters for African hoofed mammals, as well as a Euroasian nocturnarium placed in former war shelters under the Botanical Garden.
Milan Zaleš’s falconry shows were a very special and for tourists a very interesting attraction. He introduced about 20 rare birds of prey, thus the Lochotín Amphitheatre got its new use.
The second enrichment of the visitors’ service was a little tourist train, which managed to bring up to 500 visitors a day from the town centre to the ZOO.
In spite of the extreme work demanding ness the high number of 4970 animals in 1278 species of mainly very rare and noteworthy animals have been kept.
Even though the weather conditions in 2006 were not very favourable as the winter was long and tough and the summer very hot, the record number of 335 303 visitors was reached.
This meant an increase by almost 14 000 visitors.
Let me express my thanks to the employees of the ZOO and Botanical Garden (BG) for their work effort and enthusiasm. I also appreciate the activity of politicians and employees of the Municipality of Pilsen and all the fans and supporters of our ZOO.
I would like to thank them for moral and financial support without which the further development of the ZOO would not be possible.

Jiří Trávníček