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CHEERS TO REPTILIAN QUARTET
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A non-venomous boa species found in South America. It is the world’s longest snake, reaching 17.1ft (avg). They live in swamps, marshes, mainly in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Primarily aquatic, they eat a wide variety of prey, almost anything they can manage to overpower.
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The largest freshwater predator in Africa. Found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in central, eastern, and southern regions of the continent, and lives in lakes, rivers, and marshlands. The adult male is between 11.5 and 16.4 ft in length and weighs 225 to 750kg.
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(Python regius)
Found in sub-Saharan Africa. The name Royal python (from Latin regius) comes from the fact that African rulers would wear it as jewellery. The maximum adult length is 6ft. Known for its defence strategy — coiling into a tight ball when threatened.
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(Cyclura cornuta)
Primarily found on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. They vary in length from 60 to 136cm and skin colours range from a steely grey to a dark green and even brown. Primarily herbivorous, consuming leaves, flowers, berries, and fruits from different plant species.
Patna: A visit to Patna zoo is a must this monsoon.
Four new guests - a green anaconda, a Nile crocodile, a royal python and a rhinoceros iguana - will be brought from Denmark to Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park under an animal exchange programme.
The environment and forest department has sanctioned about Rs 40 lakh to develop facilities to house these four new species of reptiles. "We had sent a proposal to the department to sanction funds to develop the facilities for keeping the new animals. The fund has been released and we will soon start work on this front," a senior Patna zoo official told The Telegraph.
Three new cages will be built in the reptile section to house the anaconda, royal python and rhinoceros iguana. A place has been earmarked to keep the Nile crocodile and work on developing necessary infrastructure will start shortly. The official said the required work for developing the facilities for the new species will take around two months. "As soon as we are ready with the facilities, we will intimate the Danish officials following which the necessary process for sending the animals to Patna can start," added the official.
Though the official refused to give a specific time-frame by which visitors to the zoo could expect to see the new animals, he hinted that the reptiles would be there latest by August. "If things move according to plan, the new animals would be put on display latest by August this year," he said.
Anaconda is also known as water boa. The rhinoceros iguana is a threatened species of lizard, whereas the royal python, also known as ball python, is generally found in Africa. The Nile crocodile too is from Africa and it is the largest freshwater predator in the region of its origin. These reptiles would come from the Crocodile Zoo at Falster in Denmark and the Patna zoo will send eight gharials to the Danish zoo under the exchange programme.
The animal exchange deal was finalised in November last year after two-year-long negotiations.
