Hope they don?t change their spots!

ALLAHABAD MAY soon become Dia?s sasural. Akbar Allahabadi and Dia got engaged on Sunday. They met only a couple of days back and soon their respective caretakers decided to get them engaged so that they could ?get to know each other? before they started living together.

ALLAHABAD MAY soon become Dia’s sasural. Akbar Allahabadi and Dia got engaged on Sunday. They met only a couple of days back and soon their respective caretakers decided to get them engaged so that they could ‘get to know each other’ before they started living together.

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In case you are wondering why this fuss over Akbar and Dia—and who they are—let’s do the introduction. Akbar and Dia are leopards in the Lucknow Zoo, who would soon start living together to start a family. As the name suggests Akbar Allahabadi came to Allahabad after creating a ruckus at the Army canteen. Later, officials from Lucknow Zoo caught him and bought him to the zoo. Dia has come from Mirzapur after she hurt her paw. Dia is partially disabled.

“Both of them are similar and I think they will get along well as both of them have just come from the wilds and are quite ferocious. They have different lineages so we expect that their progeny will be excellent. Once they get used to each other they will be put in the same cage where they can mate and produce offspring,” said Eva Sharma. “If they are not used to each other and are put together in a cage it’s possible they might attack each other,” added Sharma.

Other animals in the zoo, however, are not as fortunate as Akbar and Dia and the Lucknow Zoo faces problems in getting the animals to mate. Every now and then the zoo does not have partners to provide to the animals. At other times, the existing couples are unable to mate while sometimes the animals are too ferocious to be kept with a partner.

Jaimala and Sumit, the elephants, stay together but can’t mate as Sumit’s hind leg is invalid. Hence mating is a problem for the couple. The Royal Bengal Tiger, Guddu has not been able to mate either.

“He is violent and ferocious and has already killed two tigresses, one in the Kanpur Zoo and the other in the Lucknow Zoo. After these incidents, we can’t take the risk of keeping him with any other tigress,” said Eva Sharma. Lady Amherst did something similar and killed her male counterpart.

Shweta and Aryan, the brother and sister duo, was born a few years back. Recently, Shweta was sent to Kanpur Zoo and Sona, another white tigress was bought from there for Aryan. When Sona gave birth to a cub it was a stillborn. Moreover, the zoo has not taken another chance to keep them together but the couple is being monitored and would be made to live together soon.

But the story of Lohit the rhinocerous is different. He does not have a partner at all. But, the zoo authorities are trying to get Lohit a partner. Hukku monkeys stay together but don’t mate, as the male monkey is too old while the female monkey is young.

But, there are many animals that have mated successfully and have given birth to healthy offspring. Giraffe, zebra, deer, giant squirrel, wolf and capuchin monkey are a few of them.