‘Congested’ Bhubaneswar Zoo Wants To Exchange Animals

Bhubaneswar: Nandankanan Zoo here has put out a list of 517 surplus inmates, including animals, birds and reptiles, which it can exchange with other zoos in the country.

According to officials, these surplus animals are beyond the carrying capacity of the zoo, leading to congestion in enclosures.

“Our surplus list is available with the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and other zoos so that they know what animals they can take from us in exchange for animals that we don’t have. In case they want to increase the population of some animals, they can take them from our surplus stock,” Nandankanan deputy director Jayant Das informed, adding that such exchange programmes are a continuous process.

According to an inventory, Nandankanan has 696 spotted deer, a surplus of 200. Similarly, it houses 77 barking deer (surplus 26) and 43 hog deer (surplus 13). The population of budgerigar bird is 536 against a capacity of 436.

Zoo authorities attributed the surplus numbers were due to large number of births of animals, especially deer.

The other surplus inmates comprise freshwater turtles, gharials, siamese crocodiles and star tortoises. Among the mammals there are surplus number of blackbucks, common palm civets, leopards, bonnet macaques, hippopotamus, nilgai and wild boars. The zoo has four surplus tigers, both white and normal colour. Among birds, the surplus species include cockatiel, zebra finch, night heron, white ibis and java sparrow, Times of India reported.