The Zoo Is No Place for Wild Behavior

When “zoo” comes to mind, one automatically thinks of animals.

But, what about thinking of people? Architecture? Landscape architecture?

Today I visited Praha Zoo (Prague’s zoo) and it reinforced my belief that a zoo isn’t only a place for animals but it’s for people too!

When people visit a zoo, their inner child comes out no matter how old they are. 

Praha Zoo is incredibly large in size. My two classmates, Michelle and Taylor, went with me this morning and arrived at 9:50 a.m. We didn’t leave until 4:15 pm. We didn’t even cover everything there was to be seen!

When we entered the zoo, there was a huge map with this above it.

The number was lower than 20 when we arrived. It counted how many people entered the zoo as soon as they walked through the gate. Around lunch the number read 2600 and when we left around 4 the number was over 4500.

When I bought my ticket, I was not given a map. Typically back home, maps are handed out free of charge, but in Prague, you have to buy one. Even though I didn’t have a map in my hand, there were plenty around to see where you were or where you wanted to go.

How do tourists find their way through a Czech zoo? I didn’t know what any of the signs said, so I had to rely on the graphics.  If it weren’t for graphic designers, how could I have gotten around? The graphics were great:  easy to understand and even pleasant to look at.

Back to talking about people….

Landscape architects do a fantastic job in terms of designing a zoo. Even if the walks up/down inclines was rough, there was always something pleasant to see. The trees made the walking far more relaxing. The trees weren’t just planted, they were integrated into the design of each exhibit.

For example….

Not many people think of the architecture in a zoo. The architecture isn’t fancy, but the use of materials is always fascinating to me. Take these two examples:

Each of these spaces has tree branches as an integral material to the design, but look at how different they are. Something as simple as how far the tree branches are spaced, their angle (flat or tilted), and surrounding colors creates different moods. I prefer the one where the branches are spaced further apart because I like the green and brown colors together.

Off to the side, facing an animal’s exhibit, was this interesting ground surface.  I looked down, expecting cobblestone, but instead was this:

How awesome is that? What a creative way to use trees. I absolutely love it. I’d love this to be outside my house.

There was a chair lift, off in the distance, so the three of us decided to ride it up and then back down. Here is the view:

I was terrified to be on this. Even though the view was great, I was clutching the sides of the seat. I’m surprised with myself that I could let go to take that picture. 

Once we got to the top, picture time!

 

Lunch today was great too. It was a lovely view, surrounded by trees and quite a few birds! Here’s my view from where I sat:

Here are some of my favorite animal pictures of the day.

 I love how colorful those birds are ^^^. If I could be a bird, I'd be a colorful one like this!

 Be a giraffe - - show off your long neck!

 My favorite animal is the otter. I watched the feeding today, but the woman feeding the otter only spoke in Czech. She also fed mice to the otter! Ahh! Ew. I tried drawing the otter today. It was great!

I encourage everyone to go to a zoo. Most definitely. And when you’re there, pay attention to ground surfaces, the landscape architecture, the simple architecture, along with the animals. I would love to go back to the Prague Zoo before I leave in December!