A male leopard is among the new animals at the Tata Steel Zoological Park

Jamshedpur, Nov. 28: Hog deer will be back at the Tata Steel Zoological Park after a six-month hiatus.

Five hog deer will be brought here from the Guwahati Zoological Park in January next year.

Besides, one leopard and a pair of porcupines will also be here to accompany the rest of the animals. The zoo is bringing these animals on an exchange programme with its Guwahati counterpart.

Earlier this year, nine hog deer had fallen victim to stray dogs. The dogs had entered the enclosure of the hog deers after making their way into the zoo premises.

?We will hand over five black bucks and a pair of emu in exchange of hog deer and porcupine,? said M. Palit, deputy director of Tata zoo. ?The formalities have been completed but we need to make arrangements for the transportation of the animals,? he added.

?The Guwahati zoo has surplus hog deer and porcupines. So we approached them with a formal request for handing us the animals. The animals are being exchanged between the two zoos with the permission of the central zoo authorities,? he said.

A senior zoo functionary said they were looking for a male leopard as the one here has become weak due to its age.

?We also have a young female leopard and a male company was required for it as we are looking forward to increase the population of the animal,? Palit said.

The zoo here has no difficulty in handing over a pair of emu to its Guwahati counterparts.

?We have nine emus here. We were looking for a pair of porcupines for the company of one which is here,? Palit said, adding that the zoo here has sufficient number of black bucks.

?We have surplus black bucks (35) at our disposal. We decided to exchange it with hog deer. The enclosure of the hog deer is vacant for the past six months. But now it would house the inhabitants,? he said.

Zoo officials said a team would be sent to Guwahati to bring the animals by road.