Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Rhino arrives at zoo

By Our Staff Reporter

The rhino which was brought from Assam for the city zoo on Thursday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nov. 6. The city's zoo's rhino collection went up to three, with the arrival of a female rhino - Rita - from the Assam State Zoo, Guwahati, this morning.

The one-and-a-half tonne animal aged eight, appeared none the worse for the long journey and has since settled down in its new enclosure and has started feeding in a normal fashion.

This is for the first time that such a large animal is being brought to the zoo from so far away, according to the zoo vet, C. S. Jayakumar, who led a five-member team to Guwahati. The journey, via West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, took 10 days and covered about 4,000 km.

The rhino was brought in a specially designed cage and was loaded on to the lorry, backside first. The position of the cage was reversed here, so that the animal backs out of the cage. Though the rhino arrived at the zoo just after four, this morning, it was nearly eleven, when it came out of the cage. The animal had exhibited a similar reluctance to get into the cage, at Guwahati.

During the ten-day journey, the rhino's diet consisted of rations of spinach, watermelon, sugarcane, cucumber, pulses and fruits. Regular doses of vitamin-B and vitamin-E too were administered. Now, the animal has to familiarise itself with the food given here and with the two male rhinos - Ramu and Jadu - already here. While Ramu and Jadu were brought here from Assam in 1993 after they were rescued from drowning in the Brahmaputra river, Rita was born and brought up in the Assam State zoo.

A pressnote issued by the Minister in charge of zoos, T. M. Jacob, said 14 species of animals have been added to the zoo's collection in two years. In addition to the rhino brought today, the zoo will shortly get a Himalayan Black bear from Haryana, a cape buffalo from Delhi, hyenas, lion-tailed macaques and white pea-fowls from the Anna Zoological Park. Efforts are also on to bring over some chimpanzees from the U.S.

The ongoing Zoo Modernisation Project will be completed next year, the press release said. Many species of animals including the rhinos, hippos, bear and various species of primates have been shifted from traditional cages to new scientifically constructed pseudo-habitat cages. Similar cages for other species are under construction.

The Central Zoo Authority has so far sanctioned Rs. 201.235 lakhs for this project, the press note added.

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