The White Elephant Awards

The White Elephant competition awards extraordinary breeding achievements and construction projects in Czech and Slovak zoos and we are happy to be awarded two of them for the past year. We have received the most valuable one, a stutuette of the white elephant, for breeding the great hornbills. We have been awarded another first place for the realization of a new pavilion for elephants in Karibuni. The ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 15, in the former chapel of the Capuchin Monastery in Fulnek.

The White Elephant Award is running continuously since 1994 under the patronage of the Czech ZOO association. It has two categories; in the first one the jury consisting of nine independent experts, who have dedicated their lives to the topic of animal breeding in zoos, assesses the best building or exhibition, in the other category the jury evaluates the extraordinary breeding successes of mammals, birds and other classes. Overall, 14 zoos Czech and Slovak zoological gardens applied for the 30th anniversary awards by 49 breedings and 4 structures.

"It is a great recognition for our team of breeders and also for our breeding facilities. In the recent years, we have been breeding the great hornbills regularly as the only zoological institution in the world. It was already the third time we have reared a chick of this species and, in addition, the female chick was bred using the assisted breeding method, which involved removing the chick for feeding and then returning it back to its tree cavity to the mother. This method is truly unique, we have been the very first institution to ever do such. On the top of this, the new elephant pavilion is extraordinary, it is one of the most modern and the very best facilities of its kind in Europe," announced Roman Horský, the director of the Zlín Zoo.