Coimbatore Corporation keeps animals well-fed in zoo

Birds waiting for feed at the Coimbatore Corporation Zoo. The civic body has stocked enough materials to feed the animals for a month.

As people went about stocking groceries and other essentials to brave through the lockdown, the Coimbatore Corporation too did so. It went about buying poultry feed, animal feed, paddy, soya and cereals to take care of the needs of the animals in the VOC Park Zoo.

The civic body has stocked enough materials to feed the animals for a month, say sources, adding that to ensure daily supply of vegetables, greens, fruits, chicken and meat, it issued passes authorising suppliers to deliver the goods.

With both the delivery of daily supplies and goods with long shelf-life on hand, the Corporation has gone about feeding animals every day just as if any other day, the sources say.

The primates, crocodiles, kite, jackal and a few other animals get their daily share of meat, the deer and other animals the cattle feed, birds poultry feed, snakes chicken and rat and monkeys and others, fruits and vegetables.

As for rats, the sources say the zoo staff trap the rodents to be supplied to snakes. With the zoo being closed, the Corporation has also undertaken cleaning and disinfection drive, every day.

And, the disinfection drive has only intensified after it came to light that the COVID-19 virus has affected tigers in a couple of zoos.

The Corporation has over 70 reptiles, a similar number of mammals and over 300 birds at the zoo.