In November 2021, Monica did fieldwork and archival research at Prague Zoo. Prague Zoo has been active in breeding the Przewalski’s horses from the 1930s, and did the first zoo driven reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses in Mongolia, hiring army aircrafts. Monica felt very much welcomed. She had a guided look at the well curated photo archive, and went through the several stacks of documents and published material that the Zoo stores. She also interviewed experts involved with the reintroductions from the early 1990s onwards.

Przewalsi’s horses in the photo archives of the Prague Zoo

Przewalsi’s horses in the photo archives of the Prague Zoo

Monica Vasile (middle), researching the digitized photo archive, with the current studbook keeper (Jaroslav Šimek, right) and former zookeeper, curator of the archive (Zbyněk Šíša, left).