Fauna
The history of zoological surveys of the territory of Prague goes back into considerable past. The vertebrates in the then contemporary Prague were mentioned already by Balbín in 1679. General works, however, did not originate until the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when e.g. A. Frič published his "Birds of the City of Prague" in 1866 and "Vltava Fishes in Prague Area" in 1912. In 1935 O. Rozum published his "Birds of Prague and Environs", in 1941 J. Komárek his well-known popular science book "Unknown Face of Prague", and in 1944 V. Wahl his "Birds of Prague". Further publications on vertebrates appeared only after 1970 and comprized e.g. O. Kokeš, Prague Fauna in the Past (1975), V. Hanák, Prague Mammals (1975, 1976), J. Hanzák and V. Kruis, Prague Birds (1976, 1977), J. Čihař, Zoological Research of Greater Prague with Particular Reference to Urbanization Factors (Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles), 1981.
The research of invertebrates can be dated to 1788, when Jan Daniel Preyssler (who probably went investigating wearing a three-corner hat and a wig) found an until then unknown small rusty beetle with strange antennae near the ant heap in the Royal Game Preserve - the first known representative of Clavigeridae which he described as a new species Claviger testaceus in his List of Bohemian Insects (Verzeichnis der boehmischen Insecten), printed in Prague. So far there is no specific list of all insect species ascertained in the territory of Prague. However, various lists have been published in recent years in the collection "Natura Pragensis" and further are in preparation.
There are numerous reports of the finds of invertebrates in the territory of Prague. However, they are scattered in articles in various periodicals and collections. Prague is the site on which a number of until then not described insect species had been found which received the name containing the word "Prague". For instance, the small terricolous rove-beetle Thecturota marchii, found in the Letná Park in Prague during the Second World War by Ing. Machulka and described by him in 1941 as a new species Pragensiella magnifica, or the species Napochus pragensis from the Scydmaenidae family. Also the following previously unknown species of hymenoptera were descried from the territory of Prague: Platypteromalus pragensis from the Pteromalidae family, Copidosoma pragense and Blastothrix pragense from the Encyrtidae family, and Ammoplanus pragensis from the Pemphredonidae family.
In the Czech Republic there are about 300 species of vertebrates including fishes. Among the beetles only the family Carabidae numbers some 300 species and all beetles almost 6 000 species. However, the number of all invertebrate species living in the territory of the Czech Republic is estimated at some 40 000. It is a fact that the life of all vertebrates including man depends on plants and invertebrate animals.
Therefore, it is only logical that also the legally protected parts of nature, except for those protected for exclusively geological reasons, are also refugia of natural communities of invertebrates which are entirely absent from other parts of the landscape, often entirely devasted or heavily altered by man's economic activities, or greatly reduced or empoverished in species.
On the other hand, in the estimates of the preserved and natural character of a certain area it is the spectrum of invertebrate species which gives the most complete picture of the contemporary situation and natural value of the investigated territory, whether it concerns dry, wetland or aquatic biotopes.
The occurrence of various species of slugs (Arionidae) characterizes various Prague sites. The subcontinental Chondrula tridens characterizes the dry, warm north and northwest, while the submontane species Semilimax semilimax and Vertigo substriata can be found only in the colder and moister southeast.
Invertebrate animals comprize both the species with very close links with the environment (e.g. some species of phytophagous beetles of the Chrysomelidae or Curculionidae families which are linked with a single plant species) and the highly adaptable species capable of withstanding even heavily negative impacts on and interference with their environment. They often develop into economic pests, if they overmultiply on some plant cultivated on a large scale or in the stores of various products.
In this respect the territory of Prague, whether the smaller one from 1945 (185 sq.km) or the present, larger one, incorporating a number of adjacent communities (505 sq. km) represents both geologically and biologically one of the most diverse areas in Bohemia. The enumeration of biotopes in the territory of Prague shows an extradinary biological diversity of the whole area which contains - except for high mountains and the sea coast - almost everything, be it only in small samples and fragments logically due to the impact of the city on nature.
This diversity of biotopes and their microclimate has created the prerequisites also for the survival of relic species, the living monuments of the past stages of the evolution of nature and its components in Bohemia. Their number includes particularly the species from the period following the last glaciation, when the area was covered, before the forest expansion, with colder and warmer steppes and the invertebrate species related to them, analogous with those still living in the steppes from Ukraine to the Caspian Sea.
In particularly warm periods also thermophilous species from Southern Europe penetrated here, different in the western and the eastern parts. In Central Bohemia and in Prague these thermophilous species of different geographic origin often appear together on the same adequately dry and warm rocky slopes in the valleys of rivers and brooks, similarly as the relic plant species.
These relic species of steppe character (hereafter reffered to only as "steppe species") have survived here often only thanks to man's agricultural activities. As early in the first phase of agriculture, in pasturing, man used in the first place the still unforested remainders of steppes and other free areas unsuitable for forests or fields, i.e. the very sloped surfaces. This use lasted until 1950 also in the area of Prague (e.g. on the Baba, in the Podhoří, the Tiché and the Radotín Valleys, where little groups of goats as well as sheep used to graze).
Some more suitable areas were mown regularly to yield valuable hay or occasionally burned in the autumn here and there. These seemingly negative activities, however, contributed to the preservation of near-steppe conditions, thus enabling the survival of relic groups of invertebrates, particularly their highly sensitive evolutionary stages. This is testified to by the fact that after 1950, when pasturing and grass mowing stopped because of political changes, the steppe surfaces gradually decreased in area by spontaneous overgrowing with wood species (the regular reduction of which by grazing goats was missing), and by overgrowing of grasses (due to the absence of regular grazing and mowing). This development resulted in permanent shading and moistening of detritus between plant clusters where the typically relic steppe species of invertebrates used to evolve.
This process concers chiefly the surfaces with deeper soils (loamy steppes). The purely rocky steppes with shallow soil cover are threatened with being overgrown with blackthorn. The rocky steppes involve mostly the species originating from Southern Europe, while typical species from the eastern continental steppes are usually linked with loamy steppes and are threatened most with extinction.
The loss of these cultural and scientific values which cannot be renewed by human effort can be prevented only by a targeted renovation or simulation of the previous management of the areas of steppe character, i.e. by grazing, mowing, here and there perhaps also by a well managed occasional burning, and regular liquidation of wind-blown and sprouting wood species (among which, apart from the alien false acacia particularly the blackthorn and the wild cherry are most aggressive).
The dry forestfree surfaces include also sand banks, which also have a number of specific invertebrate species not living on any other site types. In Prague, unfortunately, there are only fragments of such surfaces in Motol and in Komořany. Most of them have been exploited for sand extraction and the protection of these remainders is highly problematic.
Apart from relic steppe species also the relic forest species are well represented in Prague. Their number includes particularly typical species of thermophilous leaf-tree groves and their margins or dwarf oak woods which, however, belong to the contemporary natural system of our landscape, viz. the climax stage - which any landscape not managed by man would always reach spontaneously. This is also the case of other natural forest types, such as scree woods, waterlogged oak woods as well as brook and river fluvial plains vegetation.
With reference to invertebrates we can speak about forest relics in two respects. On the one hand, they are the species linked with the natural disintegration of wood mass, called "protoforest types" and surviving in the woods of semiprotoforest character left without major interference. This relation is sometimes replaced by old, partly decayed trees in parks and alleys. These "protoforest" species may survive only in old, rotting tree trunks. They participate in the decomposition of dead wood and cannot be dangerous to living woods, as it is sometimes erroneously believed.
The other group of relic forest species includes the species living in the soil, detritus or fallen leaves, Apterygota. They indicate the areas which were not forestfree even in the past for a long time, i. e the so-called "continuous forests". These species cannot migrate and become extinct if their site has been deforested for a long time. For this reason a continuous forest is a living natural monument which cannot be replaced merely by substitutive forest planting i.e. the planting of trees only.
The natural and seminatural wetland and aquatic biotopes also contain a number of specific invertebrate species. The river Berounka has preserved a small section of its natural bank, the river Vltava has only the remains of canalization pools near Zbraslav, Hodkovičky, Modřany, Komořany and in Troja, otherwise its banks have been canalized and paved. The section of the right bank of the Vltava in Troja is almost natural, but its sand is so polluted that the respective river species are absent. Generally good conditions for the life of invertebrates are provided also in two pond series (one between Kunratice, Šeberov and Hrnčíře, comprizing also wetland meadows, the other near Milíčov, also with wetland meadows).
As detailed insect investiation could be made only for model groups of beetles, viz. the rapacious ground beetles (Carabidae) and the phytophageous leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) and weevils (Curculionidae), the individual areas are characterized mostly by the data on the occurrence of significant and relic species of these families, supplemented with the known significant species of other families.
Map of occurrence of white-throated flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) in the teritory of Prague. This species seeks large woods with the prevalence of leaf trees and prefers higher trees. Map based on bird nesting mapping in Prague 1985 1989, organized by the Czech Ornithological Society.
Vertebrates
With respect to animal species the territory of the present-day Prague is remarkably diverse. The anthropogenous influence is indubitably strong, but it is possible to find a number of biotopes with thermophilous animals, various types of steppes, wetland and forests, although not climax forest communities. Allochthonous species of vertebrates do not occur at the rate of botanical phenomena. However, the population densities of most vertebrate species are not very high - a fact undoubtedly contributed to by the contamination of air, water and soil.
Changes in the structure of animal species take place literally before our eyes. Only fifty years ago V. Wahl wrote that the cultural steppes produced by agricultural activity had contributed to the propagation of larks, partridges and buntings. However, this no longer applies, as particularly the last named species has entirely disappeared from the nearest environs of Prague. It is also no longer true that the ortolan bunting (Emberiza hortulana), which began propagating to our country from the south-east some 100 years ago, is settling in ever new territories. On the contrary: it not only stopped propagating futher, but has disappeared even from the sites of its frequent occurrence, probably due to the application of pesticides and the deterioration of the environment. In spite of that, however, numerous sites in the territory of Prague, particularly after its last expansion, are significant refugia, particularly for amphibians and birds.
The vertebrates form a significant fauna component of most protected areas in the territory of Prague. Surprizingly enough fishes find favourable conditions in the Vltava the water of which is not of the worst quality. In Modřany and higher upstream the river is even of trout water quality. Naturally, its most popular fish of the Middle Ages, the salmon, will never return to it because of numerous weirs and dams, as a result of which the Mayor of Prague no longer obtains his traditional "Mayor's salmon" every year. Nevertheless salmonide fishes occur currently in the Vltava. The well-known "grundle" (tiddlers) - baked small fishes served in the inns of Podolí - are mostly gudgeons.
The spectrum of fish species is influenced by the cold water let out of dam reservoirs above Prague in the summer as well by the artificial introduction of some species, such as the huchen (Hucho hucho). So far 32 fish species have been ascertained in the Vltava and some of its tributaries. Vostradovský (1975) specified 31 species. On the Kampa island it is possible to obesrve e.g. shoals of three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) which propagates as far upstream as Štěchovice. On the boundaries of Prague, near the Forest Management and Gamekeeping Institute in Strandy, a dead pike 121 cm long and 13 kg in weight was found on October 17, 1988. The specimens of catfish caught in the Vltava allegedly exceed even this weight.
The amphibians have declined considerably in numbers in the past fifty years. They are an example of animals sensitively reacting to habitat changes and the deterioration of natural environment quality. An example of the consequences of the loss of pools and reservoirs is the marsh frog (Rana ridibunda) which was found at on 21 sites along the southern boundary of Prague in 1954 (with no pretense of completeness) and only on three sites in the same area in 1994. K. Kerouš (1966) states that 11 amphibian and 7 reptile species can be found in Prague area at that time.
From the number of reptiles it is the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) that can be found most frequently at some sunny sites in Prague, while the occurrence of the green lizard (Lacerta viridis), the blind-worm (Anguis fragilis) and the grass snake (Natrix natrix) is becoming ever less frequent. Other reptiles, incl. the viper (Vipera berus) have become rarities. Most of them are senselessly persecuted and affected by habitat changes, traffic and other impacts of human activities. It should be borne in mind that even the viper is a protected, even critically threatened species.
The birdfauna in the territory of Prague is surprisingly rich. It is remarkable how many bird species can be observed at nesting period, during passage and in winter. The number of species found in the present territory of Prague exceeds the number of species found in adjacent regions, which can be attributed not only to relatively diverse biotopes, ecological adaptability and synanthropisation of numerous bird species, but to a certain extent also to a major concentration of ornithologists and their observations in the capital.
Also the development of the spectrum of bird species in the recent past is interesting. The first "census" of birds in the territory of Prague was made 130 years ago by A. Frič, an outstanding zoologist, who found some 60 species in Prague and its environs. Sixty years later, in 1935, O. Rozum found by his 1913 - 1934 observations altogether 106 species. In 1944 V. Wahl speaks about 223 species in Prague and its broader environs. According to recent data and writings 243 bird species exist or have been found in the territory of Prague and further 30 species in its nearest environs. It is more than 62 % and 69 % respectively of the figures for the whole territory of the Czech Republic.
Urban biotopes, particularly parks and suburban woods, show ever higher figures in comparison with other biocoenoses of Central Bohemia. One of the main passage flyways of birds follow the Vltava and many species stay for some shorter or longer period. An unheard-of number of aquatic birds often concentrate on the Vltava which does not freeze in the Prague area practically during the whole winter. Their number frequently comprizes exceptional and unexpected species.
Zoogeographically speaking, most nesting, passing, wintering and straying bird species belong to the western paleoarctic region. Although many species, such as the hoope (Upupa epops), the bittern little (Ixobrychus minutus), the hobby (Falco subbuteo), the barn owl (Tyto alba), the meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), the jackdaw (Corvus monedula), the wheatear (Eonanthe eonanthe) have disappeared as nesting birds, and others, such as the little owl (Anthea nocturna), the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), the barred warbler (Sylvia nisoria) are quickly disappearing, some other species appear ever more frequently as nesting birds. Their number comprizes e.g. the reed warbler (Acrocephalus palustris), the nightingale (Luscinia megyrhynchos) and the flaming finch (Carduelis flammea). It is natural, although sometimes not easy to explain, that some bird species appear almost en masse. By way of example let us mention the nesting of the riverwarbler (Locustella fluvialis) in 1983 - 1985, when it penetrated also along the tributaries of the Vltava, such as the Modřany Brook and the Zátiší Brook, and nested in expectional numbers also along the lower course of the Berounka.
Also the mammals are represented by numerous species in Prague area. It must be conceeded that a detailed survey of particularly small insectivores, bats and small mammals, has not been carried out so far either in most protected areas or in other parts of the city. So far some 60 mammal species have been found in the territory of present-day Prague, of which only about one quarter occur there regularly. This number almost agrees with the species spectrum found in the adjacent regions where, however, the quota of permanent inhabitants is higher.
Almost all major parks show the occurrence of the western European hedgehog (Erinaceus Europaeus). The occurence of its eastern variant (Erinaceus concolor) requires revision. The existence of the common shrew (Sorex araneus) and the white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula) has been proved on numerous sites, that of other insectivores except for the mole (Talpa europaea) only occasionally. Although some 15 species of bats (Chiroptera) have been found, no detailed research has been carried out in most areas.
The carnivores, particularly their smaller species, occur currently in Prague, although they hide well and their presence is betrayed by traces in winter rahter than in summer. The most frequent species are the stone marten (Martes foina), the polecat (Mustela putoris), the weasel (Mustela nivalis) and the ermine (Mustela erminea). In winter the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is no rarity at the boundaries of Prague.
The red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is at home almost in all parks and cemeteries. On the other hand the ground squirrel or European suslik (Citellus citellus), previously overmultiplied, has almost disappeared similarly as the hamster (Cricetus cricetus). Minor murid rodents require detailed research. In major parks and gardens, e.g. on the Petřín hill, in the Stromovka or the Grébovka parks, the hare (Lepus europaeus), less frequently also the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) commonly live.
The ruminants found in Prague have been brought there. Their number includes e.g. the mouflon (Ovis musimon) in Kunratice Wood. The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is currently found in the marginal parts of Prague area, where also the wild boar (Sus scrofa) has occured recently. In several cases individual specimens have even penetrated to the city centre by mistake.
The vertebrate fauna in the protected areas of Prague is rich and requires not only adequate general attention, but also proper protection and systematic support, particularly concerning the species richness diversity.
The jumping spider Philaeus chrysops can jump as far as 30 cm.
The crab spider (Thornisus onnustus) is perfectly masked on its sites.
The longhorn beetle Rhagium sycophanta is a typical species of thermophilous oak woods.
The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) nests in Prague e.g. in Milíčov Wood and Ponds (PP) and Litožnice (PP).
The Przewalski horse has been preserved thanks to the endeavour of the Prague Zoological Garden.