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The presented thesis focuses on the phenomenon of the cooperation of rural municipalities. The cooperative mechanism is one of possible ways for small municipalities to solve problems resulting from their limited financial, material and human resources. The cooperation with neighbouring municipalities or other actors of spatial development allows them to realize projects and activities, that they otherwise could not realize themselves because of the costs or spatial extent of the project or activity beyond their territory. The main objective of the thesis is to classify several types of the cooperation in rural region and to apply these classifications to the model region. First the fundamental theoretical background and external and internal factors affecting the cooperation of municipalities are discussed. Further several classifications of the cooperation were compiled based on theoretical findings and recent research results. As research method, applied in model region, guided interviews with representatives of the selected rural municipalities were chosen. The first two initial hypotheses of the thesis were confirmed within the selected rural municipalities in the region of the Bohemian Paradise: The formality of the cooperation is growing, respectively its intensity is decreasing according to growing...

Neophobia and exploratory behaviour are two processes applied in great measure in birds' reactions towards novel stimuli. The specific demonstration of these two processes may differ between different species of birds as well as within them. We compared neophobia and exploratory behaviour in two species of tits (Paridae). Adult Great tits (Parus major) and Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) did not differ neither in exploring novel environment and novel object nor in neophobia towards novel object near food. We have found great differences between juveniles of these two species. Juvenile Blue tits were more neophobic towards both novel objects. Age, sex and personality affected some differences within tested species. We tested whether there exist any differences in reactions towards novel food between and within species. We used red painted mealworm (larvae of Tenebrio molitor), house cricket (Acheta domestica) and aposematic bug (Pyrrhocoris apterus) as novel food. Adult wild-caught tits with plentiful experience with various feeds did not differ in reaction towards these types of novel food. In contrast hand-reared juvenile tits differed quite a lot. Juvenile Blue tits were more neophobic than juvenile Great tits towards all three types of novel food. We found dieraty conservatism, phenomenon...