The Padma Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP) in Darjeeling, one of the highest high-altitude zoos in the country, is eagerly awaiting a new resident — a snow leopard from Dudley Zoological Gardens in London.
The two-year-old male snow leopard, named ‘Makalu’, will travel in air for about 16 hours with a stopover at Dubai before making an expected arrival at the Kolkata airport in an Emeritus Flight at 8.20 a.m. on Friday, from where the big cat will be transported to the park.
The snow leopard is named after the world’s fifth highest peak at 27,765 feet on the south-east side of the Everest.
One of the most elusive mountain cats, the snow leopard (Panthera uncial) is categorised as an endangered species in the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list.
“At this moment, the PNHZP has nine snow leopards. Eight of them are females while one is male,” V K Yadav, Member Secretary, State Zoo authority told The Hindu. The male big cat, named Subhas, is 14 years old.
The initiative to bring a male snow leopard to the zoological garden is seen as crucial to its conservation and breeding programme. Located about 7,000 feet above the sea-level, PNHZP has given six snow leopards, a pair each, to high-altitude zoological gardens in Sikkim, Shimla and Nainital.
In April 2014, the park received a three-year-old snow leopard named Sici from Czech Republic. However, the animal could not survive beyond a few months.
Efforts are also on to bring another male snow leopard from France and necessary permission for this has been obtained from the Central Zoo Authority, park sources said. Makalu will be kept in isolation in the zoo and measures will be taken to help the animal acclimatise to the local weather.
The conservation and breeding programme of snow leopards at the PNHZP started in 1983. After the success of the programme, which includes 56 births, the authorities also took the initiative of conserving high-altitude herbivores that make up the prey base of the snow leopard. They include the Blue Sheep, the Himalayan Tahr, the Himalayan Goral and the Markhor. All the four herbivores have been placed in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which denotes that the species are ‘threatened’.
