In what could be termed the start of a new relationship, a pair of rosy pelicans, a pair of Khalij pheasants and a pair of golden pheasants were brought to the city zoo from the Lucknow zoo. The creatures brought in a convoy, including a ‘specially-designed truck’ and an ambulance, reached the capital on Tuesday night and all the new arrivals are in fine health.
As part of this exchange programme, the city zoo will be handing over a pair of jungle cats, six bonnet macaques and a pair of ostriches to its Lucknow counterparts. The team from Lucknow zoo is expected to leave with these animals on Thursday morning. During their brief stay here, the officials from Lucknow held preliminary discussions with the zoo staff here on future exchanges. They expressed interest in the king cobra at the zoo’s reptile house and are mulling over the possibility of acquiring the snake in exchange for a white tiger. “Nothing is official yet since we have not held discussions with senior-level staff at Lucknow. But, we will most likely proceed with a swamp deer exchange agreement. We will have to go collect them but the Lucknow zoo is able to part with at least 15 of them,” a senior zoo official said.
Staff here commended on the professionalism of the Lucknow crew, particularly their mode of conveyance. “They had gunny bags strapped to the roof of the crates and the ambulance was well stocked with medical equipment specific to the birds’ requirements,” one official said, adding that such care was necessary considering the distance between the two cities. All the creatures were released into the enclosures in a matter of a few hours since they arrived.
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The long-pending white tiger transfer agreement with the New Delhi zoo is said to be on the verge of materialising. All paperwork, including the sanction from the Central Zoo Authority, has been done. All that remains is for the zoo officials to finalise on how the tiger will be brought since there is no direct flight between New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram.