White tiger, bear and lemur are in the list of animals that the Alipore Zoo is planning to bring from other zoos as part of its efforts to augment its breeding stock.
“We are in talks with the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park at Vizag and the Nandankanan Zoo in Odisha for procurement of these animals for breeding and consequently impress
the visitors. We have to ensure that we bring in healthy animals,” Subhankar Sengupta, director of Alipore Zoo said.
Presently, there are two sloth bears and two Himalayan black bears but all of them are male. The white tigers – one male and one female-have become aged while the two lemurs are separate species, hence making breeding impossible. Alipore Zoo boasts of a dozen giraffes in its collection which is the highest among all Indian zoos. Hence, their demand too is highest during exchange programmes. The zoo recently executed successful breeding of fishing cats, dancing deer, painted stork, iguana, monitor lizard etc.
Recently, in an independent third party assessment, Alipore Zoo was adjudged one of the top three tourist attractions in Kolkata. It evaluated and updated the zoo’s business based on its rigorous 50 point inspection that includes customer satisfaction, reviews, history, complaints, ratings, satisfaction, trust, cost and their general excellence. “The Alipore Zoo has successfully handled around 17 lakh people during the last two months without any major incident,” Sengupta added.