Welcome to the Dehiwala Zoo
Dehiwala Zoo.
It was night when the special cargo plane C-130 Hercules belonging to the Sri Lanka Air Force landed safely at Katunayake last Thursday. The plane came from the Czech Republic. The plane had on board six, huge boxes with ‘live’ cargo. These craters had a pair of Komodo Dragons, a pair of Przewalski’s Wild Horses and River Hippopotamus.
The animals came directly from the Prague Zoo of the Czech Republic. The animals would have been tired after the journey as well as going through jet lag as they had to travel over 20 hours, barring two stopovers en route. A veterinary surgeon and some caretakers from the Prague Zoo accompanied the animals on their journey to Sri Lanka.
O
nce
the documentation was completed at the airport, the animals were
transferred to the Dehiwala Zoo, accompanied by staff of the zoo. It was
reported that the animals were transported to the Dehiwala Zoo with the
driver taking much care during the journey to ensure that the already
tired animals will have a trouble free journey to Dehiwala. At the zoo, another group of workers and animal caretakers were anxiously waiting to welcome the newcomers. Their enclosures had been cleaned and prepared to receive the animals as they start their new life at the Dehiwala Zoo. A group of Young Zoologists’ Association (YZA) members too had been supportive once the animals arrived at the zoo. On arrival, the animals were found to be examining their new enclosures – similar to newcomers in a home.
Komodo Dragons
It is the first time in the history of the Dehiwala Zoo that it has welcomed Komodo dragons. Komodo dragons are found in Indonesia’s Komodo Island and some other nearby areas, hence its common English name. Dragons are gigantic and in legends, breathe fire, but these Komodos are like the over-sized local kabarayas or water monitors. But they have a voracious appetite – they eat much more than our kabaraya and sometimes lay in ambush to hunt. It is said the buffalo or deer would be the preferred diet of a grown Komodo dragon but they even eat carrions if opportunity strikes for an easy meal.
The Komodo dragon is special as it is the largest lizard that lives on earth. The yellow colour of the Komodo’s long, forked tongue reminds people of mythical dragons that spit fire according to legend. The tongue is special for them as it is used to taste the air to pick up the smell of the prey. It is recorded that they can pick up smell over a mile; so when there is a victim, the Komodo’s in the vicinity gather to feed on the carcass.
An adult dragon will hide along a trail and wait for an unsuspecting creature to walk by. Using its long claws and short, sharp teeth, the dragon will attack. If the prey manages to get away, the dragon will simply follow at a leisurely pace as a dragon’s bite contains deadly bacteria that will eventually kill its intended meal. The Komodo dragon is known to have 50 different types of toxic bacteria in their saliva that thrive on traces of flesh, causing bite-wounds to become quickly infected. Recent research however indicates that the real reason for such a high success rate in poisoning the prey could be due to the fact that the Komodo
dragon may have a venom gland in its mouth. In Komodo Islands, their habitats are been destroyed and they are pushed closer to human settlements. There are records the Komodo dragons have attacked humans as well. Even in captivity, they can be dangerous and there are records of attempted escapes. So in the Dehiwala Zoo, the Komodo dragon has an enclosure which is reinforced to the ground as well. Komodos are burrowing animals, so there would be a chance that they keep digging a tunnel under the enclosure so as to slip out.
To prevent this, a metal mesh has been fixed on the ground with sand placed on top of it. But it is better to keep your distance when you visit the zoo to have a closer encounter with these animals.
Class : Reptilia
Order : Squamata
Suborder : Lacertilia
Family : Varanidae
Genus : Varanus
Species :
Varanus komodoensis
IUCN threatened
category : Vulnerable
River Hippos
The Dehiwala Zoo has many Pigmy hippos
that are smaller in size, but the River hippopotamus – a very larger
cousin of the pigmy, died few years back. The female died attempting to
give birth and the male died some time later. The hippo’s enclosure is
near the new elephant arena that is being built in a corner of the zoo.
Nile hippopotamuses grow up to 15 feet long. Males are heavier than
females, weighing up to 8,000 pounds. Nile hippos stand at four and a
half to five and a half feet tall.
Class : Mammalia
Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Hippopotamidae
Genus : Hippopotamus
Species : Hippopotamus amphibious
IUCN threatened category : Vulnerable
Przewalski’s Horse
Mongolian Wild Horse or Przewalski’s horse is special for any zoo as they are saved by the conservation efforts that zoos take. They had gone ‘extinct in the wild’ in the 1960s and only the horses in the zoos remained. The Zoological Gardens had conducted a special programme to breed these horses. After the captive population grew, the Wild Horses were reintroduced back into the wild. Now they have made a comeback and jumped two steps to the positive side of IUCN Red List category to end up in the “Endangered” level.
Order : Perissodactyla
Family : Equidae
Genus : Equus
Species : Equus ferus
Subspecies : Equus ferus przewalskii
IUCN threatened category : Endangered
Class : Mammalia
Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Hippopotamidae
Genus : Hippopotamus
Species : Hippopotamus amphibious
IUCN threatened category : Vulnerable
Przewalski’s Horse
Mongolian Wild Horse or Przewalski’s horse is special for any zoo as they are saved by the conservation efforts that zoos take. They had gone ‘extinct in the wild’ in the 1960s and only the horses in the zoos remained. The Zoological Gardens had conducted a special programme to breed these horses. After the captive population grew, the Wild Horses were reintroduced back into the wild. Now they have made a comeback and jumped two steps to the positive side of IUCN Red List category to end up in the “Endangered” level.
Order : Perissodactyla
Family : Equidae
Genus : Equus
Species : Equus ferus
Subspecies : Equus ferus przewalskii
IUCN threatened category : Endangered
Jumbo Shipment
The military plane from Sri Lanka didn’t
go to Czech Republic ‘empty-handed’ either. The plane carried a pair of
elephants to the Prague Zoo. They were Janitha (8 years) and Amara (7
years) – male and female elephants from the Pinnawala Elephant
Orphanage. It was a promise made by the Sri Lanka government to donate
elephants to the Prague Zoo to support their Asian Elephant Breeding
programme. This is therefore different from a normal animal exchange
programme, commented the director of the Prague Zoo in reply to a query
by a local newspaper in the Czech Republic. The elephants however had to
travel nearly 30 hours with three transits to reach Prague, said
officers of the zoo. The military plane has been prepared for this long
flight, and it was a good experience for all those who were involved in
the exercise of transporting the animals on the plane.
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