Python lays eggs at Corporation zoo

This is a first in the zoo's 47-year-history

The female python with eggs at theCoimbatore Corporation zoo on Saturday. The female laid close to40 eggs.

The Coimbatore Corporation zoo will soon be richer by around 40 pythons.

K. Asokan, Zoo Director, said that the more-than-22-year-old python laid the eggs on Saturday, making it the first in the zoo's 47-year-old history.

In December last, the zoo authorities let the 10-year-old male python into the female python's enclosure for breeding. At present, the female python was incubating the eggs, which will hatch after 30 days.

Mr. Asokan said that they had kept ready additional enclosures to accommodate the hatchlings. They had also arranged chicks to be fed to the young ones.

After two or three months, the zoo authorities will handover the pythons to the Forest Department officials for releasing them in the wild. The zoo has four varieties of snakes.