Cool tips for tigers

Bhubaneswar, April 16: This April, the blazing sun will not be able to singe the wild guests at Nandan Kanan.

The zoo authorities are ready to face the summer and a cursory look at their agenda proves that they mean business.

The zoo’s menu card has taken an organic turn with watermelon, green mango, sugarcane, papaya and ripe mango being added to the list of summer coolants.

The authorities have planned to set up straw-thatched cages for birds and install bamboo-mat screens in the enclosures for peacocks and gharials.

The orang-utans, chimpanzees, baboons, lion-tailed macaques and the Nilgiri languor, too, would be getting straw roofs to beat the heat.

Agro-net screens would be put up before cages housing the squirrel monkey, some more vulnerable birds, leopards and the swamp deer.

Royal guests, the tigers, would get an extra cool item — water sprinklers — along with the straw-thatched roofs to keep them cool. Also, the old water-tanks in their enclosures would be repaired and new ones would be constructed.

The zoo started its summer war once the temperature crossed 35 degrees Celsius limit. Nets were strung before cages to trap sprayed water. Water is sprayed twice a day for the animals.

From mid-April ice-cool water would be provided to animals and birds, especially to the tigers, leopards, the squirrel monkey, cassowary and the emu.

Arrangement for special medication has also been made and animals and birds would be given extra anti-stress medication to prevent dehydration and stress.

A summer squad, complete with an emergency vehicle, would be constituted to monitor animal health during the peak summer.

The squad’s control room would be based at the zoo hospital and would be led by the veterinary assistant surgeon and the zoo staff.