NEWS FROM DHAKA ZOO

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Dhaka Zoo deer no more dear

 

 

Saturday August 27 2005 09:01:30 AM BDT

 

 

Failing to attract buyers for the spare deer, the Dhaka Zoo authorities are

contemplating slashing the price of the animal.

 

The Zoo authorities have already sent to the fisheries and livestock ministry a

proposal for reducing the price, said sources.

 

Currently, the number of deer at the Dhaka Zoo stands at 190 while for the

visitors a herd of 30 deer is enough, added the sources.

 

Every year, 25 to 30 deer are born in the zoo. The authorities are struggling to

accommodate the deer population due to space constraint.

 

In last one year, 10 deer have been sold for Tk 212,000.

 

Curator of the Zoo Mofizur Rahman told BDNEWS that initially the price for a

deer was set at Tk 25,000 but because of unavailability of buyers, it has been

reduced to Tk 15,000.

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National

 

 

New member in hippo family at Dhaka Zoo

 

 

Saturday July 16 2005 09:45:08 AM BDT

 

 

TASLIMA MIJI

 

 

A hippopotamus was born in the Dhaka Zoo on July 5, which raised the population

of the species in the zoo to eight.

 

The zoo authorities named the baby hippo as Raj. The baby now spends most of the

time under water.

 

Dhaka Zoo now has eight hippopotamuses and the safari park at Dulahajara in

Cox’sbazar has three.

 

A pair of the Kenya-origin hippopotamuses, brought to the Dhaka Zoo in 1981, has

now reached the current population of the species.

 

Hippopotamuses in the Dulahajara Safari Park were sent from the Dhaka Zoo in

December 2004. A cub was born in the recent times in the park. An adult

hippopotamus died in a fight in the Dhaka Zoo in 2004.

 

The zoo has been facing difficulties in provide the animals with food and

accommodation.

 

Eight hippopotamus are staying together in a single cage, which has the capacity

to house only a pair.

 

The nutrition officer, Shahzaman Khan, at the zoo said that the problem has

turned acute with another baby.

 

He said an adult hippopotamus eats eight kilograms of concentrate, 70 kilograms

of green grass, 10 kilograms of vegetables and eight to 10 kilograms of banana a

day.

 

The life expectancy of hippopotamus is 50 years in the wild; it is shorter in

captivity.

 

 

New Age

 

http://www.bcas.net/Env.Features/Biodiversity/2005/July2005/1%20to%2015.htm

Environmental Articles Archive: Biodiversity

Web version prepared by BCAS

July, 2005

 

Today's Weather: Barisal | Borga I Chittagong | Dhaka | Jessure I Khulna |

Narayanganj | Rangpur I Sylhet I Tangail I

 

Indian crocodiles main attraction at Dhaka zoo

 

 

A good number of visitors throng the Dhaka zoo everyday to see five crocodiles

of fresh water, imported from India.

The attraction of crocodiles among people helped the contractor increase of

gate-money.

 

The Dhaka zoo authorities said visitors in the zoo have been increasing day by

day after bringing in five crocodiles from India. These imported crocodiles have

become the focal point of attraction at the zoo.

 

A total of 40 crocodiles have been imported from the Crocodile Bank of Madras,

India as this animal sect was almost vanished from Bangladesh. Of them, 29

crocodiles have been kept in 29 Dula Hazra Safari parks, six in the lake of Khan

Jahan Ali Mazar in Khulna and five at the northern side in Dhaka zoo near a big

pond of Gorial.

 

The Dhaka zoo witnessed a mad-rush of visitors on Friday the weekly holiday.

Apart from this, the Dhaka Zoo draws a huge crowd in other days of the week.

 

Bachchu Mia, 30, of Dholaikhal area came to visit the Dhaka zoo with his newly

married wife. He said they had heard about the imported crocodiles from a

newspaper report.

 

Rafsan and his five friends of Mirpur Shaheed Police Smriti School were

exhilarated to see the crocodiles at the Dhaka zoo. They were inquisitive about

how crocodiles have been brought by an aircraft.

 

The Dhaka zoo curator Mofizur Rahman said " Crocodiles are safe here, instead

they have been kept in crammed manner in Madras. " Proper care is being taken for

the imported crocodiles in the Dhaka zoo, he said.

 

They provide two kg beef, shoal fish, small fishes of lake, calcium, vitamin and

mineral everyday.

 

Crocodiles, aged between 15 and16 years, have the capacity of reproduction. Of

the five crocodiles, four are of female type and one is male. After few days,

crocodiles will be shifted to crocodile shed.

 

 

 

Source: 16 July, 2005, The Daily Star

http://www.newagebd.com/2005/mar/02/met.html

Dhaka Zoo plans steps to check

animal population boom

Nepal Zoo agrees to take two tigers

TASLIMA MIJI

The Dhaka Zoo will go for birth control of tigers and lions check animal

population.

Five cubs of lion and one adult lion are now in the quarantine, as the zoo

fails to provide them with cages.

The crisis of accommodation, food and management has become so acute that they

are now thinking of animal population control through castration of lions and

tigers, the Dhaka National Zoo authorities told New Age on Friday.

Seven tigers are now placed in a moat that can accommodate only one pair of

tigers. The same is the case with python, Rhesus monkey and Chitral, the zoo

officials said.

The Central Zoo of Kathmandu, Nepal, contacted the Dhaka Zoo through the

Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock to take one pair of tigers in exchange of

two Black Bucks and two Golden Pheasants.

The Nepal zoo agreed to bear the transport cost for taking the animals from

Nepal to Dhaka and the other way round.

‘The Nepal zoo authority is waiting for our response and they telephoned the

Dhaka Zoo in the past week to inquire about our decision,’ said a zoo official.

The livestock ministry has been working on the process of animal exchange. The

Nepal zoo placed the proposal a year ago and it has been delayed because of

bureaucratic tangles.

The authorities, hard pressed to provide the additional animals with adequate

accommodation, are contacting specialists and foreign organisations to learn the

latest method of animal birth control, said Dr Selim Iqbal, veterinary surgeon

of the Dhaka Zoo.

There are various contraceptive methods such as the use of devices, agents,

drugs, sexual practice, or surgical procedures for animal birth control. The

Dhaka Zoo authorities are thinking of vasectomy, the popular surgical method.

Gender separation, use of birth control pills and birth control vaccines are

other ways; but they are difficult for application and are not possible in the

Dhaka Zoo, the officials said.

There has to be a legislative provision for birth control methods for the zoo

animals, Selim said. He said they had been planning a law with provisions for

birth control for animals.

‘Such a move might spark off debates as the worldwide population of wild

animals is under threat. But we are facing problems with the population of

captive animals,’ he said.

Contraceptive methods are now used in India and Pakistan to control the

population of street and domestic animals.

The zoo needs to spend about Tk 25,000 a month on each of the lions in the

zoo, the officials said.

The Dhaka Zoo has 15 lions and seven lionesses. There are nine tigers and five

tigresses.

Four tiger cubs were born on December 4, 2004. On August 29, the zoo sent two

pairs of tigers to the Dulahazra Safari Park in Cox’s Bazar and the Chittagong

Zoo.

The zoo at the time also planned to send one tiger to the Comilla Zoo and a

pair to the Banabilas Zoo at the Jahanabad Cantonment in Khulna. But the animals

could not be sent as the destination zoos are yet to build cages.

The Dhaka Zoo curator, Mafizur Rahman, told New Age that animal population

boom in the zoo has put the authorities in trouble regarding the quality of life

of the animals.

 

 

Last Updated: Wednesday, 6 July, 2005, 16:30 GMT 17:30 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4656217.stm

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Birth control for Dhaka big cats

By Waliur Rahman

BBC News, Dhaka

 

 

 

Officials are concerned about in-breeding at Dhaka's zoo.

Wildlife officials in Bangladesh say they are planning to introduce birth

control to curb the growing number of tigers and lions in Dhaka zoo.

There are now 36 tigers and lions in the zoo which has space for only 16. Half

of the food budget is being spent on the big cats, officials say.

 

They have yet to decide whether birth control pills or hormone injections will

be used to limit unplanned births.

 

Officials say a final decision on the method will be taken within two months.

 

Over-population

 

The zoo's curator, Mafizur Rahman, told the BBC that several options, including

birth control measures, were being considered as a way of limiting lion and

tiger numbers.

 

 

Officials want to emulate birth control measures carried out by London Zoo

 

Mr Rahman said the big cats were also in-breeding, which could damage the health

of future animals.

 

" This can be risky as such mating causes the increase of lethal genes among the

future generation, leading to premature deaths due to various diseases, " he

said.

 

Bangladesh does not have the necessary forests where surplus big cats could be

released, he said. Requests for other zoos in Bangladesh and abroad to take on

some of tigers and lions had met with little response.

 

" Our preliminary decision is to go for using birth control pills or hormone

injections. But we are also gathering information on how the zoos in other

countries are coping with the problem, " Mr Rahman said.

 

According to wildlife experts, London Zoo is also using birth control methods to

limit the number of its tigers and lions.

 

Mr Rahman said they do not want to introduce any permanent method of birth

control.

 

" Pills or hormone injections will not harm the sexual desire of the tigers and

lions. They will be able to breed once the birth control methods are withdrawn, "

he said.

 

The zoo's medical board is due to sit in a couple of months to decide on which

method will finally be employed to limit in-breeding and unplanned births.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2944712.stm

Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 May, 2003, 15:55 GMT 16:55 UK

 

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Zoo to release tigers and lions

 

A zoo in Bangladesh is to release 10 lions and seven Royal Bengal tigers into

tropical rainforests because it has no room for them.

 

The tigers and lions have been labelled 'excess'

 

The big cats will be set free in sanctuaries in the Sunderbans, the world's

largest mangrove forest.

 

The animals have been identified as " excess " , the chief administrative officer

of the zoo, Mafizur Rahman told the Associated Press news agency.

 

" There are eight cages in the zoo. Each of them can accommodate only two

animals, " Mr Rahman said of the 75-hectare Mirpur zoo in the Bangladeshi

capital, Dhaka.

 

" The other state run zoos have refused to accept the excess animals. Hence they

will be released into the sanctuaries of the Sunderban forests. "

 

The Sunderbans is home to about 300 natural Royal Bengal tigers but has no

natural lion population.