Sarus, who now lives in Kanpur zoo, getting used to raw food

Kanpur: Sarus crane, who shot to fame for its rare friendship with Amethi’s Mohammad Arif, is now slowly getting used to eating raw food.
Sarus, apart from eating ‘maggi’, ‘khichdi’, ‘daal’ and rice, has started consuming raw food, informed zoo authorities on Thursday.
The friendship of Arif and Sarus began from February 2022, when Arif found it injured in the fields.Later, he brought it home and treated it back to health. The, the crane had to be separated from Arif and sent to Kanpur’s zoo, where the authorities took its care and are these days engaged in improving its eating habits before sending it back to the wild.
“After coming out of the quarantine period, we are now focussing on the bird’s eating habits. Earlier, the bird was more dependent on foods like ‘maggi’, ‘dal’ and ‘khichdi’, but now it is slowly learning to eat more raw foods like grains, insects, crustaceans, small vertebrates and fish. This is being done to ensure that when it is released into the wild, it will not face any problem,” said zoo director Krishna Kumar Singh.
Arif had claimed that he had tried to leave the bird in the wild but it came back to him each time.
Videos of friendship between Arif and Sarus went viral. On March 6, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had reached Amethi to witness this friendship. However, forest authorities later shifted the bird to Kanpur zoo.
In April, Arif was also booked for allegedly violating the Wildlife Act of 1972.