It was a great experience for visitors to watch white tigers in a playful mood in their enclosure at the zoo. The four one-year-old sub adults were seen up to all sorts of antics on a cool evening recently. Visitors flipped their mobile phones and took pictures.
The grass, trees and the boulders on the hill slope provided them the perfect setting for the white tigers to chill out. They chased one another and rolled over the slope. The only danger was the prospect of them falling into the deep pit, made along the length of the enclosure to prevent them from jumping out, and injuring themselves. It would also be difficult for them to climb up once they fall into the pit.
The Indira Gandhi Zoological Park has nine white tigers. Three of them had to be shifted to the Animal Rescue Centre (ARC), located opposite the zoo, due to lack of space in the enclosure. There is ample space at the ARC but, unfortunately, it is meant to keep animals rescued from circuses, and is not open to visitors.
Of the six white tigers at the zoo, four are females and two males and of the three kept at the ARC, one is male and the other two are females. “We have plans to give away some white tigers in exchange for a giraffe. A formal agreement has been made with the Malaysia Zoo in this regard,” Zoo curator G. Ramalingam told The Hindu .
“The Memorandum of Understanding has been sent to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) for its approval. If all goes well, the giraffe may come to our zoo in a couple of months. This is the first time that our zoo will have a giraffe,” he said.
“There is no problem in keeping the four sub-adults and two adult white tigers in their enclosure at the zoo. Once the sub-adults attain full growth in about a year, the space may not be sufficient at the day crawl,” he added.
