Visitors to the new exhibition created by Brno Zoo will be provided with virtual reality headsets and encouraged to get to know animals in the wild, not only in the zoo. The new exhibition will be on permanent display on Radnická, just next door to the Old Town Hall. The virtual reality experience opens to the public on Monday 21st January.
Brno, Jan 17 (BD) – The goal is to facilitate closer contact between people and animals: “We would like to spark people’s interest in getting to know these captivating species, and to motivate them to care about the preservation of endangered animals and biodiversity,” said the zoo’s director Martin Hovorka back in 2018, when the zoo announced that they would be returning to Radnická after seven years. The space was then used for temporary exhibitions and as a gallery for photographs of animals.
“The ultimate goal of the exhibition is to show the zoo’s conservation projects in the native habitats,” said Hovorka at the press conference this morning. For example, Brno zoo set up a rescue station for sea turtles on the island of Nusa Penida in Indonesia in 2017 (project “Kura Kura”, in Indonesian “Save the turtle”).
The new exhibition will offer four different films on 33 headsets. According to Brno zoo spokesman Michal Vaňáč, the project of “virtual zoo” is first and unique in Central Europe.
Table: Main facts
| Capacity | 33 VR headsets |
| Opening times | Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00-18:00 |
| Minimum age | Children aged below 12 only if accompanied by an adult. |
| Film duration | 10-12 minutes |
| Languages | English, Czech will be added |
Until 2011 there was an aquarium in the building on Radnická. It had been open since 1969, but was moved to the main zoo in Bystrc in mid-2011 due to necessary repairs on the neighbouring Town Hall building.
The cost of the installation was CZK 5 million.
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