VISAKHAPATNAM: TWO elephants (female) from Aurangabad Zoo and nine peacocks (three male, six female) and 115 tortoises from Nagarjuna Fertilisers Cooperative Limited (mini zoo) in Kakinada will be the next attractions in the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park here. Finding that the peacocks and tortoises in the mini-zoo in Kakinada are not properly taken care of, Central Zoo authorities have transferred them to the Vizag zoo. Similarly, no proper care is taken of the elephants at Aurangabad Zoo. They will be shifted to the IGZP by month-end.
“The Vizag Zoo has a 10-acre elephant enclosure. We are now renovating the enclosure making its walls strong so that they can be left unchained,” said zoo curator B Vijaya Kumar.
Incubator inaugurated
With the Rs 8.8 lakh donated by Dr Reddy’s Foundation last year, the IGZP has procured an incubator and upgraded the Nature Library at the Bioscope. The Rs 1.82 lakh incubator was inaugurated by chairperson of Dr Reddy’s Foundation G Anuradha on the zoo premises on Wednesday. The incubator has a capacity of 200 eggs with different sizes of trays to accommodate different species to breed the rare avifauna such as ostrich, emu, all pheasants and parrots.
“The incubator is completely mechanised, but all species cannot be bred at a time because every species has different ideal conditions-temperatures and humidity-for breeding,” said the zoo curator. Meanwhile, visitors can also refer books at the Nature Library. The 24-volume wildlife encyclopedia was donated by the Dr Reddy’s Foundation.
“We are planning to upgrade the operation theatre, laboratory of animals in a better way as soon as the funds are received from the World Bank. We will soon make efforts to get a mobile X-ray machine which will be directly taken to the animal enclosure for medical test,” Vijay Kumar told Express.