<i>Dhaka Zoo's rare feat in animal breeding </i>
Dhaka Zoo was successful in breeding this rare White Back vulture, left, and these peacocks, right, in captivity. Photo: SK Enamul Haq
Struggling with a limited budget, technological inadequacy and shortage of manpower, officials of Dhaka Zoo successfully bred vultures and emus, which is not an easy task, especially when the zoo is plagued with mismanagement and frequent deaths of rare animals.
"We bred a vulture in August last year and two emus this January. Success in either of the cases is very rare for zoos," said Nurul Aziz who is in charge of taking care of birds at the zoo. The hatching was done naturally since Dhaka Zoo does not have artificial incubation facilities.
Now there are five vultures in Dhaka Zoo. "The hatching takes 55 days and in most cases the chicks do not survive. But we made it happen," said the zoo officer.
Monogamous vultures never break their pair and lay only one egg a year. "So, if the egg is not hatched, it is another year's wait," he said.
This white backed vulture species is now almost extinct in the sub-continent with 98 percent of the species having already disappeared.
Use of the diclofenac drug for cattle is blamed for the extinction as carcasses of diclofenac fed cattle causes severe kidney failure in vultures that eat them.
A survey of Bombay Natural History of Society (BNHS) says the number of the white backed vultures has fallen since 1990 from 30 million to just 11,000. The number continues to fall by 40 percent a year.
Asian Vulture Programme of Royal Society for Protection of Bird and the BNHS bred vultures in August 2009 in India after lots of effort.
"So, we consider vulture breeding here as a major success," said a top official of Dhaka Zoo.
On breeding emus, he said, "Breeding emu is also not an easy task since it is hard to create an environment for this. But we did it successfully."
At the zoo, following deaths of a tiger, a lion and a giraffe this month, a significant number of people were seen gathering in front of the cages of peafowls.
The newly born peachicks are the main attraction there, especially to children. Now there are 12 peachicks, aged one to three months, bred from three pairs of peafowls. The number of peafowl was 24 just three months ago. Now it is 36.
"All of them were hatched naturally," said Nurul Aziz.
The achievements came when officials of Dhaka Zoo are overburdened with work since around 70 positions are lying vacant at present. Many officials have to work round the clock.
"People only pay attention to the zoo when any animal dies. No one considers how we are working here. There is no shifting duty in some sections--an officer has to take care of all tasks, working round the clock," said another officer.
"The authorities should increase manpower and budget to develop treatment facilities at the zoo," he said.
There is no ultrasonogram facility, thermometers for animals and other necessary equipment to facilitate better treatment for animals.
Under the captive breeding programme of the zoo, officials have successfully bred Royal Bengal Tigers, lions, leopards, primates, deer and many birds.
The zoo has an animal exchange programme with different countries, but it does not work properly because of lack of initiatives from the government. This has resulted in overpopulation of a few species including Royal Bengal Tiger, python, lion, monkey and deer.
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