KOLKATA: After African Lion cubs, it's the turn of a snow leopard to take a flight to Kolkata. On Wednesday evening, the full-grown female phantom cat aged 5 and weighing 75-80 kg will touch down at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in a Lufthansa freighter. The leopard will be travelling from Nurnberg Zoo in south Germany to Kolkata en route to their new home at the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling.
"We are importing a snow leopard as part of the ongoing project on conservation breeding in captivity. The project that started in 1986, when a pair of unrelated snow leopards were flown in from Zurich Zoo via London, has hit a hurdle as all eight leopards that we have at present are inter-related, and hence, not suitable for breeding. Thus, we needed to get an unrelated female leopard from elsewhere to continue the programme," zoo director Alankar Jha said.
The Snow Leopard Breeding Project has been one of the most successful and only breeding programmes of the species in South-East Asia. In last 20 years, 40 snow leopards were born in captivity at the zoo. In 2003, the zoo gifted a pair of male and female snow leopards each to Nainital and Shimla zoo and three animals to Gangtok zoo.
The zoo in Darjeeling, one of the best in India and among only three to get membership from the prestigious World Aquarium & Zoo Association (Nandan Kanan in Orissa and Delhi Zoo are the other two), regularly participates in animal and bird exchange programmes internationally. In 2008, the zoo received four blue sheep and six wild goats (Himalayan Tahr) from Okinawa zoo in Japan. In 2010, it imported a female red panda from Auckland and gave a red panda to the zoo in New Zealand. Last year, it received the first tranche of exotic birds crimson horned pheasant (Satyr Tragopan) and crimson bellied pheasant (Temminck Tragopan) from Scotland. The remaining birds are expected next month.
In December, the zoo hopes to exchange a male red panda for a female one with a zoo in Australia.
Jha said the zoo had placed a request for a snow leopard before the International Stud Book Keeper of the species at Helsinki, Finland. The latter decides which animal will go where to prevent inter-breeding or in-breeding. Once the Darjeeling zoo authorities were informed that the snow leopard would arrive from Nurnberg, they contacted the German counterparts.
"The leopard will be securely transported in International Air Transport Association-approved containers. Though feeding will not be required during the flight, after it arrives in Kolkata, the zoo's leopard-keeper and vetenarian may decide on whether to administer food and water before we commence the onward journey," the director said, adding that the leopard will travel unaccompanied from Germany and then escorted by him along with other zoo staff to its new home. in cooler climes of Darjeeling.
Nurnberg zoo will partly foot its Rs 1.5 lakh travel bill.
However, the 634km journey from Kolkata to Darjeeling will have to be undertaken by road as Air India has not responded to the zoo's request for airlifting the precious cargo and Jet Airways has refused, arguing that it has permission to carry only dogs and cats in cargo hold of passenger flights. In June, five lion cubs en route to Jamshedpur zoo from National Zoological Garden in Pretoria, South Africa, arrived in a Singapore Airlines passenger flight without any trouble.
"We are importing a snow leopard as part of the ongoing project on conservation breeding in captivity. The project that started in 1986, when a pair of unrelated snow leopards were flown in from Zurich Zoo via London, has hit a hurdle as all eight leopards that we have at present are inter-related, and hence, not suitable for breeding. Thus, we needed to get an unrelated female leopard from elsewhere to continue the programme," zoo director Alankar Jha said.
The Snow Leopard Breeding Project has been one of the most successful and only breeding programmes of the species in South-East Asia. In last 20 years, 40 snow leopards were born in captivity at the zoo. In 2003, the zoo gifted a pair of male and female snow leopards each to Nainital and Shimla zoo and three animals to Gangtok zoo.
The zoo in Darjeeling, one of the best in India and among only three to get membership from the prestigious World Aquarium & Zoo Association (Nandan Kanan in Orissa and Delhi Zoo are the other two), regularly participates in animal and bird exchange programmes internationally. In 2008, the zoo received four blue sheep and six wild goats (Himalayan Tahr) from Okinawa zoo in Japan. In 2010, it imported a female red panda from Auckland and gave a red panda to the zoo in New Zealand. Last year, it received the first tranche of exotic birds crimson horned pheasant (Satyr Tragopan) and crimson bellied pheasant (Temminck Tragopan) from Scotland. The remaining birds are expected next month.
In December, the zoo hopes to exchange a male red panda for a female one with a zoo in Australia.
Jha said the zoo had placed a request for a snow leopard before the International Stud Book Keeper of the species at Helsinki, Finland. The latter decides which animal will go where to prevent inter-breeding or in-breeding. Once the Darjeeling zoo authorities were informed that the snow leopard would arrive from Nurnberg, they contacted the German counterparts.
"The leopard will be securely transported in International Air Transport Association-approved containers. Though feeding will not be required during the flight, after it arrives in Kolkata, the zoo's leopard-keeper and vetenarian may decide on whether to administer food and water before we commence the onward journey," the director said, adding that the leopard will travel unaccompanied from Germany and then escorted by him along with other zoo staff to its new home. in cooler climes of Darjeeling.
Nurnberg zoo will partly foot its Rs 1.5 lakh travel bill.
However, the 634km journey from Kolkata to Darjeeling will have to be undertaken by road as Air India has not responded to the zoo's request for airlifting the precious cargo and Jet Airways has refused, arguing that it has permission to carry only dogs and cats in cargo hold of passenger flights. In June, five lion cubs en route to Jamshedpur zoo from National Zoological Garden in Pretoria, South Africa, arrived in a Singapore Airlines passenger flight without any trouble.
Source: TOI
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