Bhubaneswar: Good news for animal lovers. 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.
Kamal Lochan Purohit, Assistant Director of the Nandankanan Zoological Park said Rishi, a white male tiger, 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, Purohit added.
“As the Nandankanan zoo presently has only one female giraffe, we will bring a male giraffe from the Alipore zoo.”
A team of veterinary doctors is travelling with the truck carrying four tigers. This would be third exchange programme between the Nandankanan zoo and the Alipore zoo.
In August 2011, the city zoo had sent a dozen animals, both small and big, to the aliore zoo as part of an exchange programme. A giraffe sent by the Alipore zoo in exchange died in an accident on its way to Nandankanan. However, Alipore Zoo did not send any replacement for the giraffe leaving the Nandankanan zoo in a lurch.