Soon, Patna zoo to get female zebra

PATNA: The Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park (also Patna zoo) is set to welcome a female zebra from the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata as part of an animal exchange programme next month. In return, Patna zoo will give away one white tigress, a pair of sambar deer and six blackbucks.

According to Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park’s director Amit Kumar, talks for animal exchange between the two zoos had been going on since last year, but the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) gave its nod earlier this month.

“We are in the final stage of executing the animal exchange. It will take few weeks for transfer of animals to happen. We hope the female zebra will reach the zoo by April,” Amit told this newspaper on Saturday.

The CZA, which is the apex body for all zoos across the country, has a set of guidelines which they have to follow while undertaking exchange programmes. The body checks the track record of zoos before granting permission to them.

With the arrival of a female zebra, Patna zoo inmate Chhotu (10-year-old zebra) will finally have a partner.

“This deal with the Alipore zoo will be the first animal exchange programme of 2019,” Patna zoo officials said.

The city zoo received different inmates — 20 black-crowned night herons in pairs, two Lady Amherst’s pheasants, two Yellow Golden pheasants and a male Indian bison — from the Mysore Zoo in December last year in exchange of a pair each of sloth bears and silver pheasants and a female jungle cat.

Earlier, the CZA has given its consent to the Patna zoo for several animal exchange programmes with Tamil Nadu’s Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Delhi’s National Zoological Park, Denmark’s Danish Zoo, Bhopal’s Van Vihar National Park and Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden.