New Delhi: The Delhi zoo got three lions from Gujarat for breeding purposes under an animal exchange programme on Monday, officials said. One lion and two lionesses have been brought from Kevadia and Sakkarbaug in Gujarat, an official said. In return, Delhi will give two hippopotamuses to the western state.
The Delhi zoo also welcomed a four-horned antelope and a red-eared slider turtle. "The lions will be kept in quarantine for 20 days and will be released in their enclosure thereafter," the official said. The Delhi zoo had only one lion, Sundaram, and one lioness, Hema. Sundaram had suffered a paralytic attack last year.
A seven-year-old lion, Aman, had died in May after a prolonged illness. An 11-year-old lioness, Akila, who suffered from paralysis for 9 years, died in August last year. Delhi is also likely to get two tigresses and a pair of sloth bears from the Gorewada zoo in Nagpur.
The Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai is likely to provide a tiger to Delhi.
A Bengal tigress was brought from Kanpur for breeding purposes in November last year. The Delhi zoo is a participating zoo for the "Conservation Breeding Programme" of Bengal Tiger.
According to the Central Zoo Authority, the programme is the science of conserving a species by preventing imminent population collapse in the wild due to a large number of eliminative pressures (such as habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, industrialisation, poaching, illegal trade and climate change).
At present, the Delhi zoo has five white tigers — three males and two females and a pair each of Bengal tigers.