With the death of the lone red kangaroo, the authorities of Alipore zoo have decided against keeping the pouched mammals in captivity.
“We have decided that we won’t bring anymore kangaroos in the near future,” a West Bengal Zoo Authority official told PTI.
“Henceforth, our focus will be on species found in eastern India and not exotic species. There may be issues with the environment, management of the animal or suitability of the enclosure. We don’t know there can be so many problems so we will avoid them”.
Native to Australia, the red kangaroo is the largest of all marsupials.
In 2011, the zoo had brought four individuals of the species from Czech Republic.
“It was suffering from chronic myopathy disease inherited from parents who had also died from it. The disease causes muscle degeneration and even affects the heart and lungs,” former zoo director K.L. Ghosh under whose tenure the incident was reported, said.
“It was living all alone all these years. We looked for a mate but could not find one,” he said.
Spread over 45 acres in Alipore, the zoo is home to over 1250 animals, including rare and endangered ones.
