A two-and-half-year-old giraffe, Shankara, has been successfully transported to Hampi zoo in Vijayanagar district from the century-old Mysuru zoo.
The zoo spared the tall animal to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Zoological Park at Kamalapur near Hosapete after it got an approval from the Central Zoo Authority and the Zoo Authority of Karnataka.
Giraffe Shankara was born on July 12, 2021 at the zoo here to Bharatha and Lakshmi.
Giraffe Shankara was spared to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Zoological Park at Kamalapur, near Hosapete, by the Myusuru zoo. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The 13.5-ft.-tall Shankara travelled a distance of 424 km to Kamalapura from Mysuru and safely reached the zoological park to join a female giraffe. The giraffe’s journey began around 8 a.m. on Wednesday along with a team of officials, and it reached Kamalapura at 6 pm, said Zoo Executive Director D Mahesh Kumar.
Hampi Zoo Executive Director Ravikumar, ZAK Veterinary Advisor K.V. Madan, veterinary officer Dr. Vani, and animal keepers and staff accompanied the animal to Kamalapura from Mysuru.
The zoo thanked the police for providing traffic-related support and the CESC for managing overhead cables for the safe transportation of the tall animal. It’s a big challenge to transport a tall animal like a giraffe by road. The departments helped us in making it possible, said the zoo director.
In recent years, several giraffes were spared to the zoos by the Mysuru zoo. A female giraffe Gowri and a male giraffe Yaduveer were spared to Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bengaluru in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Importantly, two male giraffes – Adyaveer and Balaji - were spared to Singapore Zoological Gardens in Singapore in 2021. In 2019, Jayachamaraja giraffe was sent to Assam State zoo in Guwahati.
The century-old zoo is considered one of the leading Indian zoos to have successfully bred giraffes in captivity. The zoo is in a position to spare giraffes in exchange for animals which are not in its collection, or give to zoos within the State for improving their collections.
In fact, the zoo’s captive breeding of giraffes received a boost when a female giraffe, Kushi, was brought from Lucknow zoo in 2007.
Chamaraja was one of the longest-living giraffes, which died some years ago at the ripe old age of 17. Chamaraja was hand-reared by zoo keepers like its siblings — Narasimharaja, Yuvaraja, and Krishnaraja — which were born to Honey (20) which outlived its natural lifespan. Giraffes are said to live up to 18 in the wild and 20 in captivity.
A few years ago, the Mysuru zoo created a record of sorts when it successfully transported a 12-foot tall male giraffe to Guwahati in Assam, covering a distance of about 3,200 km, including the roads in the hill terrains, through many States in a custom-built crate that was mounted on a long-chassis truck. It was not the first time the zoo ferried the tallest land animal on the long-distance routes. What is unique in this case was the distance.
This was perhaps the longest distance a giraffe travelled on road so far in recent decades. The zoo had in the past transported a giraffe to Patna zoo, covering a distance of about 1,800 km, in 2014. In such long-distance travels, the giraffes undergo preparatory training for about six months and were familiarised with the tall crates and fed inside the enclosure as part of the acclimatisation process.
