Chhatbir zoo’s aviary to get flightless birds section

MOHALI: Ostrich, emu, rhea, cassowary will be added to the new flightless birds section to extend the walk-in aviary at the Chhatbir zoo by the first week of May, making it Asia’s largest birds enclosure.

The walk-in bird aviary at Chhatbir is the longest in the country with 40 species of birds. The zoo authorities are mulling to increase the number to 90 to make it at par with international zoos. The Punjab government has already given permission to set up flightless birds section, said Kuldeep Kumar, chief wildlife warden, Punjab.

Chhatbir zoo field director M Sudhagar said the work to make flightless birds section has already started. The design is such that it will be like a complete loop of the aviary. We will be keeping 20 flightless birds of four species, three to be added first and another at later stage. It will be the biggest walk-in-aviary setup covering 2 acres of land,” he said.

Sudhagar said the zoo will be procuring four ostriches, 10 emus and six rhea birds from Kerala, Chennai and Hyderabad zoos. In the second phase, exotic birds like cassowary will be brought from Hyderabad. Sudhagar said they are likely to be brought in by the end of this month.

He said at the flightless birds section, tunnel like wire-mesh enclosure will be made for public to pass through and the birds will be left in open. Visitors will walk through the meshed tunnel in proximity of the flightless birds.

The walk-in aviary has already become the main attraction for visitors at Chhatbir with avian-human interface, where visitors walk through caged enclosure and the birds have free flight. The 300 metre walk along the meshed tunnel gives real time feel to visitors of birds being in a jungle.