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Big day for big cats in the zoo

Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

The tigers does not seem to be enjoying the sight of visitors at Nandankanan Zoo near Bhubaneswar on Friday. —

Bhubaneswar: It was celebration time at the Nandankanan zoo in Orissa on Friday for the birthday bash of Rishi, Sitesh and their sister Prachi, three white tiger cubs.

“The cubs who turned four years were bathed and given special dishes on the occasion. Well, they had chicken as breakfast,” Nandankanan Zoo Director Ajit Patnaik said.

Though the three cubs had celebrated their B-day on one enclosure last year, this time round there were separate arrangements. “We separated the siblings to avoid inbreeding,” an official said.

The siblings born to mother Shailaja, were however separated last year as Rishi and Sitesh (males) grew up. Both Shailaja and Prachi share one enclosure number 33A while the brothers were put in enclosure number 20.

The main gate of the zoo was decorated with balloon and a display board.

The authorities also did not forget to organise a cake-cutting ritual.

A boy and a girl from a local school cut cake on behalf of the birthday babies amidst the singing of “Happy birthday to Rishi, Sitesh and Prachi” by children and visitors.

The big cake cut on the big occasion was distributed among the children who gathered to celebrate the special day at the zoo. The zoo which had been organising birthday celebration of the tiger cubs was also planning similar event for other rare animals, Patnaik said. - PTI

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Big day for big cats in the zoo

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