Wallaby, Livingstone Turaco Pairs Are New Attractions At Nandankanan Zoo In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar now has good news for visitors with the arrival of new guests. To the delight of the nature lovers, the zoo has added a pair of wallabies and a pair of livingstone turacos in its list of inmates.

One pair of wallabies and another of livingstone turacos have been brought to the Nandankanan as part of the animal acquisition programme, sources said. The new acquisition has reportedly been made from Hyderabad.

While wallaby has been acquired by Nandankanan for the first time, the acquisition of turaco is intended for pairing with existing turacos, according to zoo officials.

They said livingstone turaco is a species of bird in the family Musophagidae, which was named for Charles Livingstone, the brother of David Livingstone. The bright green turaco with a white-tipped crest is found in the humid first areas of Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Similarly, wallaby is a small to medium-sized mammal belonging to the kangaroo family, Macropodidae. The species is found chiefly in Australia. They resemble kangaroos but differ somewhat in dentition. They are smaller than kangaroos in size.

The new guests arrived in the zoon on Friday and have been kept under quarantine as a  routine precautionary measure.