Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Prague zoo - please help

The Prague Zoo has again been completely devastated. After the 2002 floods they built a 20 foot wall to protect the zoo for further potential flooding. It proved to be insufficient. Fortunately they started evacuating animals earlier enough to save them from drowning (with very few exceptions, two stoats and a rabbit that they couldn't get out of their burrows) and relocated them to higher ground and other zoos. Now the Prague Zoo is facing over 160,000 million crows in repairs and renovations. That number is the current estimate, but as the zoo is still mostly underwater there is no way to fully calculate the damage at this point.

Below are a few pics from our trip to the zoo - one that has been recognized as one of the best in the world - and our family's favorite. These are obviously from far sunnier times than today.

This is the walk-through lemur exhibit - up on the horizontal branch in the middle you can see one running through the crowd. 






This is what it looks like today. All of the areas shown above are now underwater. These photos were taken by the Prague Zoo.











The zoo has been inundated with people from all over the city, of all nationalities, offering manual labor and cleaning supplies but what they really need is money. The zoo has had to reopen their upper levels as they are dependent upon the income generated from visitors and they cannot afford to lose any income at this time. If you can, please donate to the zoo. One way to do so is through their Zoo Adoption Program. They also have a Flood Recovery Donation Account that has been established. You can click on either link for more details.

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