New inmates cheer up visitors at SV Zoo Park

Tirupati: Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park (SVZP), Tirupati, got some new inmates to cheer the visitors this summer. Under the animal exchange programme, SVZP exchanged some animals with Kanpur Zoological Park to get a female Asiatic lion, a male white tiger, a pair of Chinkaras, three Muscovy ducks, three swamp deers, a pair of hog deer and a pair of Kalij pheasant.

In return, the SVZP has sent a pair of Indian Gaur, one female white tiger, three wild dogs, three white Ibis and three grey pelicans to Kanpur zoo. With these changes, the carnivore population at the SV Zoo Park has crossed nearly 110. Needless to say that SVZP spreads over an area of 1,254.71 hectares out of which 289 hectares has been developed so far. Speaking to The Hans India, SVZP curator P Selvam said that they have been trying to get more species from other zoo parks to amuse the visitors. Apart from others, the zoo is not having any giraffe at present and getting it requires huge funds. It may cost around Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore. If donors come forward with their CSR activities to fund this, the proposals can be moved forward.

Efforts were on to get other species as well under exchange programme. For instance, proposals were sent to get Royal Bengal tiger from Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, which are yet to be approved. Similarly, Tata Zoological Park in Jamshedpur was approached for getting Mandrill along with some animals from Visakhapatnam Zoo. These are to be approved. However, a proposal was approved to get hippopotamus from Trivandrum Zoo Park for which the enclosure has to be readied first. Another proposal to get wolf from Chennai Zoo was also approved and is trying to complete all these initiatives during this fiscal.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that some of the new inmates are yet to complete the quarantine period while some others were kept for display in the enclosures for visitors. As the SVZP has white tigers and wild dogs of opposite genders, they were exchanged for inbreeding and blood exchange among the species.