BEACH VACATION

 Visitors to the city zoo can now meet two cuddly three month-old leopard cubs. These male and female cubs have been garnering, “Awwws!” from the public for the past one week, romping alongside proud mom Sheena, who was born six years ago at the zoo. The cubs will remain in the nursery for one more month, after which they would be let out into an open enclosure.

Cubs are kept in close proximity, but away from the mother as the mother tends to get defensive about the cubs and attack visitors. “The first six months are crucial in a cub’s life and it is during this time that the cub learns the basic lessons of survival. The cubs have now started eating meat. We were giving chicken and beef initially, but have stopped it now because of issues of contaminated meat, which seems common nowadays” said the zookeeper, Murali.

“We named these baby leopards Sarang and Sarishma. We are looking forward to raising these little cubs into strong leopards,” he added.

The zoo has also witnessed recently the birth of nine other baby birds and animals and the population of black bucks and hog deer has also gone up. This is a reflection on the improved health status of the zoo animals, after a spate of diseases and deaths that claimed several animals.

According to the norms of the Central Zoo Authority, the Zoo cannot buy new animals. Instead, it could exchange animals with another Zoo. So an increase in the number of a particular species is an advantage since they can be exchanged for new animals.

source: http://www.yentha.com/news/view/news/say-hello-to-the-newcomers-at-the-zoo