In the last week, terrible floods have hit Prague, the beautiful old capital city of the Czech Republic. These are the worst floods for over 100 years, leaving thousands of people without homes.
The floods rushed into Prague zoo as well, and hundreds of zoo animals had to swim for their lives. One of the monkeys drowned in two minutes, because the place where he lived was covered by water.
An elephant, called Kadir, also drowned, but his death helped to save other animals. Kadir was famous because he had appeared on TV. When they heard the news of his death, hundreds of people phoned the zoo offering help.
After the sad news of the elephant's death, many volunteers came to the zoo to help the animals. This was not easy. They had to use the huge machines to lift things onto ships. Without these, it would have been impossible to lift the very large animals like elephants.
Other animals swam out and were helped to survive by people. For example, one of the seals, Gaston, swam to Germany, 120 kilometers away. In the end, four hundred animals were salvaged.
