Zoo inmates on special summer diet

VISAKHAPATNAM: With the summer being exceptionally cruel this year, animals at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park are beating the heat by gorging on a diet comprising seasonal fruits, oral rehydration and long dips in water ponds. With temperatures touching a record 47 degrees Celsius last week, zoo authorities have ensured that water is available for animals at various enclosures in order to keep them cool.
Interestingly, the demand for mangoes among the zoo inmates is quite high, with majority of the herbivores being fed this seasonal fruit. The Vizag zoo gets around 600 kg of feed every day for the herbivores including sugarcane, mangoes, carrots and cucumber among others. “The bears and birds love mangoes and papayas,” zoo workers said.
Meanwhile, the lone elephant at the zoo is being fed two watermelons and five kg of cucumber apart from nearly 60 kg of sugarcane, jaggery, and ragi porridge. Its diet also includes three dozen bananas along with two dry coconuts a day.
Hippos also receive a daily dose of 10 kg of cucumber, 2.5 kg of tomatoes and 5 kg of carrots. At the same time, about 75 to 100 kg of groundnuts, sunflower seed, black gram, cattle feed, horse gram make their way to the zoo to ensure a healthy diet for various birds in the zoo.
According to senior zoo officials, all the enclosures including those of tigers, panthers, hyenas, bisons and sambars are either provided a pond or a water tub for them to take a dip when the temperatures head north.
Apart from deploying water sprinklers, the zoo inmates have been provided thatched shelters to cut down on the heat of the day. While diet is a crucial part of ensuring that the animal stay healthy during the hot weather conditions, zoo curator G Ramalingam said, “Many of the animals stay in the water ponds for long durations of time.”
And while Monday saw some respite from the heat, zoo veterinarian V Srinivasa Rao said that the cloudy sky was just a temporary phenomenon and the special diet for zoo inmates would continue for next three to four weeks till the onset of monsoon.