Kangaroos to soon thrill Hyderabad Zoo visitors

Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park will soon welcome its first kangaroos from Australia under an animal exchange programme with Vantara. The zoo has also arranged for a female giraffe to join Sunny, enhancing the exotic wildlife collection.

Hyderabad: Soon, children, families and wildlife enthusiasts strolling through the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad will be thrilled to see the new exotic animals hopping in their enclosure.

For the first time in history, Kangaroos, native to Australia, will become part of the Hyderabad Zoo’s family as they will be brought to the city.

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Vantara, a global wildlife rescue and conservation centre by Reliance Foundation in Jamnagar, Gujarat, will be giving a pair of Kangaroos to Hyderabad Zoo under the animals’ exchange programme.

The Nehru Zoo has already made arrangements, including enclosures and a night house, and is gearing up to receive Kangaroos, which are one of the most well-known Aussie cultural symbols. In fact, a Vantara team led by its director, Brij Kishor Gupta, recently visited and went through the zoo facilities and infrastructure.

“This is the first time the zoo will have Kangaroos. We will shortly receive one male and one female kangaroo from Vantara. All necessary arrangements have been put in place to welcome the zoo’s new family members. After receiving Kangaroos, they will be quarantined for some days before being put on display for the visitors,” a Nehru Zoological Park senior official told ‘Telangana Today’.

In return for these Kangaroos, the Hyderabad Zoo will give one of its jumbos to Vantara. Earlier, the Nehru Zoo had planned to get 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 shelved owing to challenges due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Further, Sunny, a male giraffe who is living a lonely life, is set to get a female partner. Last week, senior officials from Hyderabad Zoo visited the Mysore Zoo and finalised the animal exchange. “We are expecting the giraffe by the end of this month,” an official added. Presently, the zoo has a collection of 199 species, with over 2,200 animals and birds.