Vizag zoo finally welcomes giraffes

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) finally received two giraffes from the Malaysia's Negara Zoo as its newest inmates here on Friday. The two giraffes (a male and female each) arrived at around 4.30 pm on Friday evening from the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, where they had been housed for the last one month. While the male giraffe is aged two years and is about 11 feet tall, the female giraffe is around 8 feet and one-year-old.
Speaking to TOI, IGZP curator G Ramalingam said, "The giraffes were transported in a truck with two containers and were accompanied by a veterinarian during the journey from Hyderabad. The giraffes left at around 5 pm on Thursday evening from Hyderabad and reached here on Friday evening. We have transferred the animals to the night crawl and will observe them for the next two to three days after which we will allow them for public viewing by November 20."
He said that the giraffes were fed fruits such as bananas, apples and vegetables along with peepal and banyan leaves. "We stopped for about five hours during the journey to provide rest to the giraffes," the zoo curator added. Also, water and feed were kept in separate tubs during the journey from Hyderabad, he said.
The two giraffes have been brought to Vizag zoo in exchange for three white tigers with Malaysia's Negara Zoo. Initially, three giraffes were expected to come to India from Malaysia, but one of them died during the journey by ship from Malaysia last month. The third giraffe was meant to be housed in the Hyderabad zoo as a replacement for another giraffe which had died a few months ago.