Eight new leopards arrive at Bannerghatta Park

The park has to make space for these animals owing it to the space crunch at the Mysore Zoo, which is procuring new animals including cheetahs and Asiatic lions from Sakar Bagh in Junagadh, Gujarat, in January 2011. Until new enclosures are made, the leopards will be kept at the BBP temporarily.

In exchange for the other animals, the Mysore Zoo has procured five porcupines, 20 red-eared turtles and 20 star tortoises from BBP.

For a short-term

“The leopards, three males –– Vishnu, Raja and Sachin, and five females –– Katrina, Mitha, Lasya, Deesha and Raksha, will add to the 40 that are already in the BBP. They will be here for a short period of two months. Until we receive further instructions the leopards will be sheltered here,” BBP Assistant Conservator of Forest Krishna Kumar said.

Unlike in BBP which had stopped feeding chicken to the animals owing to the Salmonella infection which killed three healthy tigers, these animals were fed with chicken meat at the Mysore Zoo.

The BBP authorities are now planning to follow suit. They are considering bringing live chicks, getting them checked by the veterinary doctor and then feeding them to  the animals.

Meanwhile, a tiger cub, born to 19-year-old tigress Sneha on December 1 is being sheltered at the Veterinary Hospital  and is being hand-fed by BBP doctors as the mother has abandoned the cub. Another 23-year-old lion Sundar, who is unable to stand, is being administered by intravenous fluids. He was rescued from Komal Circus, Faridabad in Haryana.