Zoo could do with a ‘pied piper’

Rats are multiplying and barn owls have been given the job of killing them

The Thiruvananthapuram zoo is getting a real feel of the rat menace.

Rats can be a real menace, and the city zoo has its share of them. Recently, the zoo authorities realised that the open enclosure housing nilgai and barking deer had become infested with rats.

The officials first tried to capture them by setting traps. The captured ones were fed to the snakes at the zoo.

Soon, it became apparent that there was a limit to the numbers of rats that could be caught this way. A more effective solution had to be found.

Biological control seemed to be the best option, and the officials turned to barn owls to do the job. First, though, they had to get one little problem out of the way.

As the nilgai enclosure also houses parakeet, peacock, and pigeon, it had to be established that the owls did not pose a threat to the other birds.

A parakeet was released into an enclosure with a barn owl to see if they were compatible. When the parakeet seemed safe, the owls released into the nilgai enclosure.

The experiment, launched only a few days ago, seems to be yielding results, zoo veterinarian Jacob Alexander said. “Keepers say the rat numbers are coming down,” he said.

The other pests

Rats though are not the only pests in the zoo. Crows continue to make life hell for the deer species and ostriches. The crows peck at the deer, at times inflicting serious injury. The zoo has posted a keeper in the deer enclosure to shoo away the crows, but it does not seem to be much of a deterrent.

Pigeons too descend on the deer enclosure in droves, making away with sprouted green gram, Bengal gram, and cottonseed mixed in their feed. It is much the same in the ostrich enclosure. Mongooses are also aplenty on the zoo premises, digging their way into all enclosures. In one enclosure where a peacock has been housed, no other bird can be accommodated as mongooses thrive there.

They can be seen around the enclosures of carnivores such as tigers even, dragging away pieces of meat falling away as the big cats tear into their food.

But being a protected species, there is little that can be done to remove the animal.