A touch of exotic for Nandankanan zoo

BHUBANESWAR: Come August 23 and Nandankanan Zoological Park will have new guests. Three leopard cats, as many Sangais and many more.As part of the Zoo’s plans to bring in new inmates for facilitating breeding and augment exhibit value, Nandankanan has procured exotic animals from Assam’s Guwahati Zoo. A team from the Zoo left for Assam and will have arrived with the inmates-to-be on August 23.Nandankanan will have a Slow Lorris, a primate which does not occur in this region, three Manipuri dancing deer (Sangai as they are known), three Leopard Cats and a pair of Jungle Cats. The famous animal park will give up a pair of white tigers, two gharials and four Zebra Finch birds in exchange. The Zoo, currently, has 22 tigers and the officials say giving away two would  not affect their population in any way. “All the animals we are exchanging with Guwahati Zoo are surplus in number. In some cases, we need to reduce the stock whereas we need to avoid the pressure of inbreeding too,”  Nandankanan Zoo Director Dr Sudarshan Panda said. In fact, the animal park once boasted of a huge tiger population, in excess of 50, but inbreeding which remained a cause of worry led to weakening of the large cats. Similar is the case with gharials which are bred in captivity in Nandankanan. Panda said, the Zoo will transport its animals to Guwahati only after it receives the consignment from Assam on August 23. More than two years back, Nandankanan had got into an exchange programme with Kolkata’s  Alipore Zoo. It wanted a giraffe in exchange for a dozen animals, both small and big. While it sent the animals to be exchanged, the giraffe died in an accident in Kolkata in transit. The Kolkata Zoo did not send any replacement for the giraffe leaving Nandankanan in the lurch. Meanwhile, the zoo authorities have sought permission for another round of exchange with MC Zoological Park, Chhatbir in Punjab. It is planning to procure a male zebra (currently Nandankanan has three females), a pair of leopards, a pair of white bucks and a Saras crane. Facilitating breeding of new animals is high on Nandankanan’s agenda.