MOHALI: Born to fly but hatched in a cage by humans—190 rare wild birds were bred in three years at Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park, Chhatbir village, through the magical science of artificial incubation.
Last year, the zoo made 70 artificial hatchings. Punjab chief wildlife conservator Kuldeep Kumar said: "Artificial incubation of wild birds is rare for many Indian zoos. The chief minister directed the state wildlife board recently to prepare a breeding unit at Chhatbir for pheasants and partridges."
Zoo's field director M Sudhagar said: “After a trial in the year 2017-18, our avian artificial breeding unit was able to produce 70 chicks in 2019. These are young ones of scheduled species such as white peacock, Indian peafowl, red jungle fowl, Kalij pheasant, Mongolian pheasant, golden pheasant, and chakor partridge. The success rate was 70%.”
In three years, the zoo has bred even animal species such as black buck (state animal of Punjab), swamp deer, mouse deer, Manipur deer, sarus crane, parakeets, and ducks. These birds don't reproduce in captivity, generally. Sudhagar says that Chhatbir is able to achieve this because of new managemental practices, diagnosis of issues, proper sex ratio, feeding enrichment, off display and isolation in oestrous period, peripartum (period preceding childbirth) and post-partum care, and special care of young ones.
Health management of confined wild animals is one of the prime jobs of zoos. Confinement disturbs their natural instincts, which affects their physiological parameters and breeding behaviour. Chhatbir is able to create a similar-to-natural environment for breeding.
Breeding starts with the study of the blood profile of carnivores and the brooding behaviour of birds, in a phased manner. It's rare but when mothers reject their young ones, the zoo isolates the chicks and shifts these to a neonatal care unit at its wildlife hospital for hand-rearing.
Experts from Ludhiana's GADVASU (Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University) and the IVRI (Indian Veterinary Research Institute) have together studied breeding improvement to use it for lions, tigers, and reptiles. Sudhagar said: "If everything goes well, the zoo may get tiger and lion cubs next year."
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May 23, 2020 at 06:10PM
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