Patna zoo gets new inmates from Mysore

PATNA: The Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park or Patna zoo welcomed new inmates — 10 pairs of black-crowned night herons, a pair each of Lady Amherst’s pheasants and yellow golden pheasants and a male gaur — from Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens (Mysore zoo) on Saturday.
In exchange, the Patna zoo will give a pair each of sloth bear and silver pheasant as well as one female jungle cat to the Mysore zoo.

Patna zoo director Amit Kumar said, “After the Central Zoo Authority’s (CZA) nod, we received the new zoo inmates on Saturday morning. The trucks, which took almost four days to reach Patna, will return to Mysore with the exchanged animals by Wednesday.”

The Lady Amherst’s pheasant will now be the new attraction at the Patna zoo. “This is the first time that we have received a pair of Lady Amherst’s pheasants as part of an animal exchange programme. The enclosure of the yellow golden pheasant had been lying vacant for three years as the last pair died in 2015. We were also left with only one female gaur after a pair died in 2016,” said an official at the zoo, wishing anonymity.

According to Amit, the Patna zoo authorities expect to welcome some more inmates by the end of December. “We are in talks with the Zoological Garden at Alipore in Kolkata to get a female zebra in lieu of one white tiger, six black bucks and a pair of large deer. Both the zoo authorities have agreed upon the exchange and are waiting for the CZA’s approval,” he said.

The CZA is the apex body for all zoos in India and the animal exchange programmes are approved by it. Earlier, the CZA had approved several animal exchange programmes of the zoo in Patna with that in Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bhopal, Assam and even Denmark.