The historic Byculla Zoo in Mumbai now has two new attractions - Veera and Oscar.
Veera is a male Royal Bengal Tiger cub while Oscar is a Humboldt Penguin chick - both born in the zoo last year.
Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar named the penguin chick Oscar, while the tiger cub was christened as Veera.
Mumbai Zoo’s director Dr Sanjay Tripathi too was present.
The Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo or the Mumbai Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in India.
Spread over 50 acres, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation-owned zoo is popularly known as Byculla Zoo or Rani Baug.
Notably, a pair of Bengal tigers Shakti and Karishma were brought to the Byculla Zoo from Aurangabad’s Siddharth Garden Zoo on February 12, 2020. The cub Veera was born on November 14, 2021.
Oscar was born to the Humboltd penguins Mr Molt and Flipper on August 18, 2021 and is the third penguin chick to be born in the Mumbai Zoo.
Eight Humboldt penguins – Donald, Daisy, Popeye, Olive, Flipper, Bubble, Mr Molt and Dory – were brought here from Seoul in South Korea, on July 26, 2016. However, Dory could not survive and died on October 23, 2016, because of a bacterial infection. A baby penguin born to Mr Molt and Flipper, born in August 2018, had died a week after birth.
A male penguin chick, named Oreo, was born to Humboldt penguins Donald and Daisy on May 1, 2021.
Another penguin chick was born to Flipper, the oldest female among the Humboldts, and Mr Molt, the youngest male in the zoo, on August 19, 2021 - which now has been named Oscar.
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