Get your first look at Alipore zoo’s new arrivals tomorrow

TNN | Dec 14, 2017, 06:32 IST

KOLAKATA: Visitors to Alipore zoo will get to see the new guests — four grey kangaroos, a pair each of jaguars and Asiatic lions and six mouse deer — from Friday. According to a senior zoo official, state forest minister Binoy Burman and urban development minister Firhad Hakim will inaugurate the newly-constructed enclosures of kangaroo, lion, jaguar, leopard and mouse deer on Thursday morning.

Zoo director Asis Kumar Samanta said: "Since the zoo remains closed on Thursdays, the visitors will get to see the new animals from Friday."

Four grey kangaroos, a gift from Yokohama zoo, had arrived in the city on October 26 and have been kept in quarantine since then. Their enclosure is spread over almost two acres. The last kangaroo in Alipore zoo, a red one, had died in October 2015.

"Two of them — a male and a female — are each a year old. The second male is two while the other female is aged 10 months," said a zoo official. The grey kangaroo is the fastest of all kangaroos, reaching a speed of up to 70kmph.

The visitors will also get to see jaguars in the zoo after a gap of four years. A pair had arrived from the Hyderabad zoo on October 29, along with a pair of pure Asiatic lions and six mouse deer, under an animal exchange programme.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/get-your-first-look-at-alipore-zoos-new-arrivals-tomorrow/articleshow/62061789.cms