Israel zoo team arrives

Israel zoo team arrives
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Highlights

A three-member expert team comprising a wildlife ranger, head keeper and a supervisor from Tisch Zoo, Israel arrived here on Sunday to examine the three chimpanzees that were gifted by Israel to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park.

- Israel team from Tisch Zoo to conduct awareness workshop for Zoo Park staff tomorrow
- Fibre balls, music system to be provided for entertainment of chimpanzees gifted by Israel

Visakhapatnam: A three-member expert team comprising a wildlife ranger, head keeper and a supervisor from Tisch Zoo, Israel arrived here on Sunday to examine the three chimpanzees that were gifted by Israel to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park.

The Israel Nature Parks Authority (INPA) team will also conduct an awareness workshop on ‘enrichment and upgrading skills of animal keepers’ at the Zoo Park on Tuesday.

The three chimpanzees -- Chiko (male, 18 years), Chipa (20 years, female) and Chikita (30 years, female), which arrived at the Zoo Park on Saturday will be kept in quarantine for a month to examine their behavior. Later, blood tests will also be conducted to check whether they have any type of communicable diseases. Blood test is mandatory before allowing them for public display. “The chimpanzees are doing well. We have already secured a food menu chart from the Jerusalem Zoo. They eat all kinds of fruits, vegetables and drink milk just like human beings. We have met the total transportation expenditure of about Rs 18 lakh to bring the chimpanzees,” Zoo Curator B Vijaya Kumar told ‘The Hans India’ on Sunday.

The Curator informed that all the three chimps are slowly accustoming to the Zoo environment and to the animal keepers. He said one of the female chimps showing some aggression and start crying if it come across a new face.

“We are also planning to provide some balls made of wood or fibre and also a music system at their enclosures to their entertainment after discussing it in detail with the INPA team,” said the Curator.

He informed that the INPA team would conduct an awareness workshop to all the animal keepers of the Zoo Park on Tuesday to help upgrade their skills in feeding, rescuing and nurturing animals and birds. To a question, he said that the Vizag Zoo is likely to be getting zebras either from Israel or from Taiwan adding that as per the Central Zoo Authority, Indian zoos were permitted to keep exotic species not more than 10 per cent of its total number of animals. However, securing animals either on exchange basis or through purchase from other countries involved tedious procedures and permissions, which generally delay the process, he added.

Meanwhile, it is also to be noted that the Curator is managing the animals and birds with only 47 animal keepers while 34 posts were lying vacant for long. If the government also focuses interest on the development of Zoo Park, it would be an added encouragement to the efforts of the Curator and other staff.

V V L N Rao

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