Safari Park Dvůr Králové is a zoological garden in Dvůr Králové nad Labem. It was founded in 1946 as a small zoo corner where visitors could admire badgers, foxes or owls in a few cages and aviaries [1]. The number of animals gradually grew, and a pavilion of exotic animals with monkeys and a lion named Rémus was added. According to its operator, the garden soon became the second largest and most visited facility of its kind in the country [1].
The arrival of Josef Vágner and the focus on Africa
A turning point in the history of the garden came in 1965, when the forester, naturalist and traveller Josef Vágner became its director [1][2]. He pushed through a specialisation in African fauna and the idea of building a safari modelled on facilities he had come to know on his travels in Africa [2]. He sought to improve the conditions of the animals in his care: he enlarged enclosures, replaced cages with moats and had new pavilions built [2].
Between 1967 and 1975 he organised nine large expeditions to Africa and Asia, from which he brought almost two thousand animals to the garden in Dvůr Králové [2]. According to the operator, Vágner's transports stood out for their high success rate, because for the move he chose strong individuals able to cope with the long journey and acclimatisation [2]. The zoo's website states that these imports laid the foundation of the breeding stocks that to this day make the garden "the most significant genetic bank of African animals outside their original homeland", as Safari Park Dvůr Králové puts it [1].
Vágner's dream of building a safari was fulfilled in 1989, when the safari was opened to visitors for the first time [2]. Twenty-five years later, in 2014, it was renamed in his honour the Josef Vágner African Safari [2].
Breeding and its results
On the basis of animals brought by Josef Vágner from Africa, the world's largest herds of giraffes, zebras, lechwes and other species arose, according to the operator [1]. The garden was the first in the world to import critically endangered hirolas from the African continent, and the first to breed them [1]. The first births in Dvůr Králové include young of okapis, pygmy hippopotamuses, Dalmatian pelicans, black mangabeys, chocholatka červená and Nitsche's tree vipers [1]. The breeding of African wild dogs, cheetahs, rhinoceroses, secretary birds and lesser kudus is, according to the operator, "the absolute world top" [1]. Beyond African species, the garden mentions the first Czech breeding of hyacinth macaws and successful breeding of orangutans, Amur tigers and polar bears [1].
The garden focuses on rescue breeding of black rhinoceroses, which were returned to Tanzania and Rwanda. In 2009 seven rhinoceroses were returned to Africa, and in 2016 an eighth individual [2]. The garden further states that more than a hundred animals of several species from its stocks have been transferred to Africa in total to support endangered populations there [2]. The operator pays special attention to northern white rhinoceroses: only two females of this species are left in the world, and both were born in Dvůr Králové, and according to the operator no other zoo in the world has ever bred this species [1].
In 2014 and 2017, as part of the Burn Horns Save Rhinos campaign, the garden organised demonstrative burnings of rhino horn to draw attention to the killing of rhinoceroses in the wild for their horn, and called on the public and governments to stop taking part in the trade in these animals [2]. By its own account, the garden also takes part in other conservation projects aimed at saving endangered species and improving their conditions in the wild [2].
Status and layout of the garden
The distant history of the garden is recalled by the Neumannova vila, which according to the operator remains the centre of the whole grounds [1]. In 2016 the safari in Dvůr Králové was declared a cultural monument, the only facility of its kind in the country [1][2]. According to the operator, the offer includes a classic safari among freely moving herds of animals and a lion safari, which it describes as the only one of its kind in Central Europe [2]. A walking route past the largest group of giraffes kept outside Africa and past the rhinoceros breeding, for which the garden became famous by its own words, is also available for a visit [2]. Animals that can, according to the operator, be seen only here in Czechia include drills, forest buffaloes, Thomson's gazelles and Congo peafowl; visitors can go to the lions in their own car or in the vehicle called Afrika truck [1].