BHUBANESWAR: The Nandankanan Zoological Park on Wednesday received an adult Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) and five mugger crocodiles as part of a huge exchange programme with Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad.
Besides, it also got a pair of white fowl, five red jungle fowls, mouse deer in the ratio of 5:2 and two pairs of painted storks.
It gave away a normal coloured tigress, a female mouse deer, five water monitor lizards, 20 each of zebra finch birds and java sparrows as well as golden pheasants in exchange for the 24 animals and birds it received.
Director Sisir Acharya said the young adult tiger, though zoo-bred, is of good pedigree and has been brought in to infuse new blood among the cat population of the animal park. Nandankanan has just about 17 tigers in its collection as yet.
‘’The exchange programme was approved quite some time ago but we had held it back because of the bird flu scare which was reported in October,’’ said Acharya.
Over the next one week, Nandankanan would bring in a male gharial from Lucknow Zoo to give a boost to its captive breeding programme. It is also waiting for nod of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) for a Nilgai langur, lion-tailed macaque, white peafowl and painted storks to be brought from Chennai Zoo.
Interestingly, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Herpetology Research Centre has agreed to give away a green anaconda, Nile crocodile and a spectacled caiman for free. However, this would require an approval of the CZA.
‘’Since these species were not part of our Collection Plan which is a component of the Zoo Master Plan, we will have to make an amendment which necessitates prior approval of the CZA,’’ the Director said.
For this exchange, the Zoo would have to make new designs and layout plans for separate enclosures to be included in the Master Plan.