A male giraffe is being brought from the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata to the Nandankanan Zoo here in exchange for four tigers. The four tigers, including two females, were transported in a special truck from the Nandankanan Zoo on Friday.
Nandankanan Zoological Park Assistant Director Kamal lochan Purohit said a white male tiger Rishi, Snehasis, Sheela and Payal were sent to the Alipore Zoo under an exchange programme. Two of the tigers are two years old while the two others are 7 and 11 years old, he informed.
Purohit said, “As the zoo has only one female giraffe, we would bring a male giraffe from the Alipore Zoo.”
A team of veterinary doctors is also travelling in the truck carrying four tigers. This would be third exchange programme between the Nandankanan Zoo and the Alipore Zoo.
The city zoo had sent a dozen animals, both small and big, to the Alipore Zoo as part of an exchange programme in August, 2011. A giraffe sent by the Alipore Zoo in exchange died in an accident on its way to Nandankanan.
However, the Alipore Zoo did not send any replacement for the giraffe leaving the Nandankanan Zoo in a lurch.