František Bílek

František Bílek (1885-1972) was an important Czech zoologist, founder of Czech zootechnics and a leading expert in genetics and horse breeding. His name is mainly associated with the restoration of the rare breeding of the Kladruber black horse and the breeding of the Przewalski's horse. 

František Bílek was born in Slaný in 1885. After completing high school studies in Prague, he enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy to study zoology and became a student of and later assistant to the eminent zoologist František Vejdovský. He was mainly interested in anatomy, but he was also interested in genetics and breeding, i.e. zootechnics. After graduating in zoology, he briefly worked as a high school teacher and at the same time was engaged in research at the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University. In 1917 he entered the academic sphere and lectured at the University of Agriculture in Prague. He became more and more inclined towards genetics and zootechnics and in 1923 was appointed professor in these fields. At the same time, he also studied at the Faculty of Medicine and from 1924 worked partly as a gynaecologist at the General Hospital in Prague. But he is best known as a leading expert on horse genetics and breeding. He decided to save the rare breeds that were threatened with extinction, and thus he connected his activity mainly with the disappearing breeding of Kladruber horses and the disappearing Przewalski's horse. He bought his first Przewalski's horse with his own money in Halle an der Salle, Germany, in 1921 and two years later he also bought a mare. First, he placed them on the school farm in Uhříněvs and managed to expand the breeding by four foals. After the Prague Zoo was founded in 1931, he donated the horses to it and thus began the famous Czech breeding of this endangered species. Thanks to him, about 70% of all Przewalski's horses living in the world today have “Czech ancestors”. In the 1930s he directed his efforts to another breed, the traditional Czech Kladruber. The breeding of Kladruber horses was restricted after 1918, because this breed was bred purely for ceremonial purposes and the representational needs of the nobility and clergy, and this traditional function was unnecessary in the newly established Czechoslovak Republic. Thus, the Kladruber ceased to be bred, and the black horses were even meant to be eliminated altogether. Some were put up for sale and many ended up in slaughterhouses. But the last seven Kladruber black horses were acquired by Professor František Bílek, who moved them to Průhonice and renewed their breeding there in 1938. Po válce jim pak zařídil nové prostory ve starých hřebčínech ve Slatiňanech a v Heřmanově Městci, kde jsou starokladrubští vraníci – plemeno – zapsaní jako Národní kulturní památka – a jsou zde chováni dodnes. After the war he arranged new premises for them in the old studs in Slatiňany and Heřmanův Městec, where the Kladruber black horses - a breed registered as a National Cultural Heritage - are still bred today.

GOTTHARDOVÁ, L.; BÍLEK, J. František Bílek: otec české hipologie a zootechniky. Bezdědice 2012

František Bílek (Author: Malá vzpomínka na velkou osobnost zootechniky, ifauna.cz (https://www.ifauna.cz/kone/clanky/r/detail/6570/mala-vzpominka-na-velkou-osobnost-zootechniky/))