Surat zoo plans to get lions in exchange for Indian Otters

Keen to get a pair of Asiatic lions,the Surat zoo officials have once again approached the Rajkot zoo and Sakkarbaug Zoo in Jungadh.

Keen to get a pair of Asiatic lions,the Surat zoo officials have once again approached the Rajkot zoo and Sakkarbaug Zoo in Jungadh. This time,they plan to exchange it with Indian Otters. The captive breeding of Indian Otters is successfully done only in Surat,according to the zoo officials.

Sarthana Zoo,run by the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC),lost the hybrid Lioness Sita (21) in 2008. Sita,along with Bahadur,were brought from a Ranchi zoo nearly five years ago. While there was hardly any chance of Sita producing offspring as she was already 19 when she was brought here,her companion Bahadur was also showing signs of aging.

We would like to have a couple of Asiatic lions so that we can keep them for public display,and if everything goes well,we would also go for captive breeding, said zoo superintendent Praful Mehta.

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He said Sarthana is the only zoo in the country to have successfully done captive breeding of Indian Otter.

We have otters and we would not mind giving it to either Sakkarbag zoo in Jungadh or thee Rajkot zoo in case they plan to give us a pair of lions. In fact,we have asked for two lionesses and a lion in our formal proposal, said Mehta.

The Sakkarbag zoo had recently handed over a tiger,Himalayan Bear,some species of parrot and a Blue Crown pigeon to the Vadodara zoo.

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