Dr Suresh, assistant director of Zoo told Deccan Herald that the reptiles have started moulting enroute Mysore, since their journey began from Sri Lanka. Among the total three male and two female reptiles, four have started moulting. One among them has already shed the skin, while the remaining three are expected to get rid of the old skin in few days.
Owing to moulting the colour looks dull and it’s a natural process. There are instances where anacondas shed skin once in a month. At the time of moulting, the reptiles vision too dims. As a result the anacondas are yet to feed on its prey- rats (both dead and alive) already let inside the glass enclosure in large numbers. The remaining male anaconda, small among others, too is yet to take the food, probably owing to the different environs.
However, once it gets acclimatised with the environs here, it would grow to an attractive size of 17 to 18 feet in length. It would need two to three years for the reptiles to attain that look.
On Saturday, the day after anacondas enclosure was opened for public viewing, too, the Zoo received huge crowd of people with most visitors vying to get a glimpse of the new arrivals. The numbers are surely expected to grow manifold on Sunday, being a general holiday.
Published 26 November 2011, 17:45 IST