Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park welcomes real-life ‘Rafikis’

Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park has added two brightly coloured mandrills to its collection under an animal exchange programme. The primates will be open for public viewing in early March after completing quarantine

Hyderabad: Brightly coloured mandrills have recently joined the Nehru Zoological Park‘s collection. They will make their first public appearance after their 15-day mandatory quarantine period.

The two mandrills were brought from the Tata Zoological Park, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, to Hyderabad zoo a week ago. This is in exchange for a pair of African lions. With vibrant blue and red facial ridges, yellow beards, the mandrills, which are the largest primates and native to tropical rainforests of central Africa, are widely known for their appearance. These primates got more prominence after Rafiki, a famous character from ‘The Lion King’ movie.

---

“We received two male mandrills from the Tata Zoological Park, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, as part of the animal exchange programme. Currently, these primates are under quarantine and they will be displayed for the visitors in the first week of March,” Nehru Zoological Park Curator J Vasantha told ‘Telangana Today’.

The zoo is also planning conservation and breeding of these primates. Accordingly, efforts are on to get two female mandrills in about five to six months for companionship for the males.

Kangaroos, giraffes and hillock gibbons are among other animals that will soon be added to the zoo’s collection. The Hyderabad zoo is in talks with Vantara, a global wildlife rescue and conservation centre by Reliance Foundation in Jamnagar, Gujarat, which will be giving a pair of kangaroos under the animal exchange programme.

Accordingly, the zoo has made arrangements, including enclosures and a night house for kangaroos. In return, the Hyderabad zoo will give one of its jumbos to Vantara.

Earlier, the Nehru Zoological Park planned for four kangaroos from Yokohama Zoological Gardens in Japan in 2020. A deal had also been struck between the zoos. However, the deal had to be dropped due to challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic.