The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Zoo gets a male leopard

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Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Zoo gets a male leopard

Staff Reporter

– Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Young and vigorous: The leopard that was brought from Thrissur to the city zoo on Monday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 14-year-old leopard was brought over to the city zoo from Thrissur on Monday morning.

The animal was captured from Wayanad in May 2003. A six-year-old male tiger was transferred to the Thrissur zoo in exchange for the leopard.

According to zoo officials, the leopard, Ganesh, is feeding normally and is very aggressive.

On the afternoon of May 20, Ravi, the male tiger was tranquilised and loaded on to a truck for the journey to Thrissur. Once inside the truck, the animal was revived using an antidote and water was sprayed on it to counter the

effects of the sedative. At Thrissur the same procedure was carried out before bringing the leopard over.

Prior to this, the city zoo had three leopards – a mother and daughter and a very old male who could not mate. Now that the young male has been brought over, the zoo hopes to breed leopards. The animal would be put in quarantine for a few days. Then the other leopards would be put in an adjacent cage for some days so that the animals get used to the others’ presence. Only then would they be released together into the enclosure, zoo vet Joe Jacob Sebastian said here.

The team of zoo officials also took with them two vipers to Thrissur and brought back two sand boa snakes.

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