The Hindu : Rosy Pelican breeds in captivity in Coimbatore zoo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Rosy Pelican breeds in captivity in Coimbatore zoo

By V.S. Palaniappan

COIMBATORE, JAN. 17. A Rosy Pelican has bred in captivity in the Corporation Zoo at VOC Park here. It hatched two eggs.

Animals in schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act are already listed by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) for conservation breeding and now it has included 11 more species. One of them is the Rosy Pelican, which has bred in captivity at the Mini zoo at VOC Park, the zoo director, N.S. Manoharan, said.

Care was being taken to protect the new-born as the mortality rate is high among these birds.

Already the Coimbatore Zoo witnessed breeding by Rosy Pelicans three times.

The Rosy Pelican breeding was not common and frequent in the rest of the zoological parks, he said. After laying eggs, the bird took nearly 35 days for hatching. It would ferociously protect the chicks.

The zoo had seven Rosy Pelicans, of which five were adult birds, including two males. The other two were chicks and their sex could not be determined now, said Mr. Manoharan.

The black coloured chicks have started attracting visitors to the zoo. The chicks would start turning rose as they grew and during the breeding season the Rosy Pelicans would turn darkish pink.

Belonging to the family of pisci vorus, surviving on fish and crab, the bird is largely found in Europe and Asia. Originally it did not belong to India and was a migratory bird.

The bird is normally seen in wet and marshy land along agricultural fields in the State. It visits Kodikkarai and Vedanthangal during the last four months of the year for breeding.

While Grey Pelicans were prolific in breeding, the Rosy Pelicans were moderate.

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