2024: Zlín Zoo attendance among the top three ever recorded
Dear visitors and community, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for another fantastic year in our zoo! Your support means the world to us and we are looking forward to seeing you in 2025!
In the past year, the Zlín Zoo attendance climbed up to remarkable 765 585 visitors. This final number marks the third consecutive year the zoo attendance exceeded 750 000 and the number itself confirmed our claim to call the Zlín Zoo the second most visited zoological garden in the country. Furthermore, we are delighted to announce we have welcomed a lot of new life in 2024! Overall, our animal charges parented 396 babies, including some threatened species. The biggest attention was paid to the birth of lion cubs, the very first to be born in the zoo. Another exceptional breeding success was the birth of a critically endangered pied tamarin among with the hatching of capuchinbirds, the rarely kept avis species native to South America. What’s more, we are grateful that the first hatchling of a black-casqued hornbill in the country hatched right in our care. Also, we have managed to secure a safe vulture haven, rewarding us by hatchlings of not one, but four species of the majestic birdcollected for the project. Also, we have added a new, pre-paid ticket option to enter the zoo. Last but not least, the first clients rented our new facility U Supa to spend their special day in the garden and we hosted birthday parties, wedding receptions, teambuildings, photoworkshops and many more. To sum the past year up, it was truly a successful period,“ commented Roman Horský, the director of the zoo.
„We are thrilled to have so many returning visitors, it means a lot to us and we highly appreciate it. It is a proof that the interest in our garden does not decline. My cordial thanks go to the trustee of the zoo, the City of Zlín, for the long-time financial support of our investment projects allowing our conservation organization to perpetually grow, to the Region of Zlín, our sponsors and to everyone, who loves the Zlín Zoo,“ stated Roman Horský.
In the terms of attendance, the fairytale chateau Lešná, situated in the heart of the zoo, recorded astonishing 36 530 visitors, the highest number since 1990. „The chateau was bursting at the seams especially during the night, costumed tours and during halloween. For the third consecutive year, we have spent the proceeds from the chateau attendance on restoration of rare fabric wallpapers,“ described Romana Mikešová, the head of marketing in the Zlín Zoo.
To sum the past year up, 2024 was marked as a year of preparations, especially of the next stage of Karibuni, the largest project in the history of the zoo, whilst the year of 2025 is going to be really eventful. „The most anticipated event will be, probably, the opening of the first rescue and breeding center for lions in the Czech Republic, opening at the end of June. In addition, a new walkway in Karibuni will be accessible, allowing the visitors to walk around the entire vast elephant enclosure up to the breeding facility, providing them an opportunity to see it up close for the first time. In April, we are going to open a first part of Nusantara, a new exhibition complex, inspired by Indonesia and its fauna, housing tapirs, porcupines, reptiles and megabats. The almost ready-to-be-open habitat for gibbons was carefully projected to accommodate every need they may have, providing a lot of enrichment and pastimes for the species. What’s more, the enclosure will offer the visitors the opportunity to observe the apes during the cold winter months, what was unavailable to this date. The Nusantara is going to span near the Japanese garden, Mu-Shin. In 2025, a long neglected Australian district of the zoo will undergo a major transformation, introducing new species to the visitors – wombats, the short-legged muscular marsupials. If everything goes according to the plan, we will start its construction in September. This year, we would also like to start the construction of a photovoltaic power plant, covering a significant part of our electricity consumption,“ Roman Horský delivered.
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