E-Paper
Chimp population falling
THE CHIMPANZEE population is the fast declining in the country. If the global policy relating to exchange of wild animals was not liberalised, this species would become a thing of the past in the country. Future generations would not be able to watch them either in zoos or in the reserved forest. According to the Kanpur Zoological Garden (zoo) director R Hemant Kumar, the population of the rare species has come down to 25 in the country. There are only 11 males and 14 female chimpanzees in the different zoos of the country.
THE CHIMPANZEE population is the fast declining in the country. If the global policy relating to exchange of wild animals was not liberalised, this species would become a thing of the past in the country. Future generations would not be able to watch them either in zoos or in the reserved forest.
According to the Kanpur Zoological Garden (zoo) director R Hemant Kumar, the population of the rare species has come down to 25 in the country. There are only 11 males and 14 female chimpanzees in the different zoos of the country.
Mysore Zoo has seven chimpanzees while Kolkata zoo has four animals. Besides, the Kanpur Zoo has two, Chennai has one animal. Bhubneshwar, Hyderabad and Delhi have three chimpanzees and the Rombo Circus has two chimpanzees.
Almost all these chimpanzees have completed 30 years in captivity. Experience has shown that they die between 30 to 34 years of age. Since these animals have crossed the age of reproduction, the chances of them breeding have also become absolutely nil.
On the other hand, the global policy has banned the exchange of the wildlife. As such it would also not be possible to acquire chimpanzee from other countries to rear them at the zoos in future, he said. Referring to the chimpanzee at the Kanpur Zoo, Kumar said that ‘Chajju’ was the youngest chimpanzee in the country. It was only 25 years, but has no spouse suiting his age. He lives with his 35-year-old ‘cruel’ mother, Zuma. He said Zuma along with a male, Pasha, was brought from Knios Children Zoo in West Germany and Chotu and his mother Rita were brought from a zoo in Europe in December 1979. Kumar said that Pasha died in 1980 following cardiac arrest while Rita died of intestinal infection in the 1983.
From Chotu and Zuma a female chimpanzee ‘Usha’ was born in 1984, but died within a week, as her mother Zuma did not rear her. Finally, when ‘Chajju’ was born in 1985, it was separated from his mother and was hand reared.
This was the first case of hand rearing the chimpanzee in all over the Asia. The animal survived and was still hale and hearty. But he is without spouse.
Chimpanzee is given a rich vegetarian diet, which includes apple (500 gm), banana (1 kg), orange (500 gm) grapes and leechi (each 250 gm) bread (200 gm), gram (100 gm). Milk (1 liter), honey, tomato eggs jaggery corn etc.
