Added attractions at Alipore Zoo

Kolkata: Visitors to the Alipore Zoological Gardens this winter have reasons to cheer as a number of new animals will be there to add to its charm. After the arrival of four grey kangaroos, a pair of jaguars, a pair of Asiatic lions and six mouse deer reached the Alipore Zoo in the wee hours on Sunday.

"The jaguars, lions and the mouse deer have been procured from Nehru Zoological Garden in Hyderabad. They will be in quarantine for 25 days and by the end of November we are hopeful of setting them free in their enclosures," Asis Kumar Samanta, director of Alipore Zoological Gardens said.

The Alipore zoo authorities have got these animals following an exchange programme with the zoo in Hyderabad. "We have handed them a pair of giraffes and a couple of salt-water crocodiles," Samanta said.

The mouse deer is found in parts of Central India and it is after a span of more than three decades that these animals are becoming a part of the Alipore Zoo. The last female jaguar had died in Alipore zoo in 2013 after a prolonged illness.

A source in the zoo said that one of the lions suffered some minor bruises while being transported from Hyderabad that took four days. However, the zoo authorities assured that the animal is already being attended by veterinary doctors and it will take a few days for the bruises to heal.

The two pure Asiatic lions will surely be a treat for the visitors. The two lions in the zoo are aged and are hardly put on display. The new duo are hybrids of African and Asiatic lions. On Thursday, four grey kangaroos, known to be the fastest kangaroos in the world, arrived in the zoo from Japan's Yokohama zoo.

The last kangaroo at the zoo had died in October 2015. In 2011, Alipore zoo had procured four red kangaroos from the Czech Republic, all of which died by 2012. A female among them had given birth to a joey before her death, which died later in October 2015.

"We are taking all measures to ensure that such unfortunate deaths do not occur in future," a zoo official said.