The ostrich couple at Tata zoo in Jamshedpur. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, May 31: The Tata Steel Zoological Park will now have to wait for another year to breeding ostriches as the first attempt of the zoo authorities failed this year.

The pair of ostrich, both seven-year-old, brought from the Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai, last year were successful in mating, but all the five eggs laid were found to be unfertilised by the zoo authorities. The zoo is now keeping its fingers crossed for the coming year and hoping that there would be some breeding.

“Since farm birds usually have difficulty in incubating, we were sceptical about the breeding this time. Usually, ostrich eggs are hatched in incubators and the chances of fertilisation is one in 10 eggs. It was a big challenge for us but we failed,” said Bipul Chakraborty, director of Tata Steel Zoological Park.

The zoo authorities said that the last egg was laid around April 9. The zoo authorities took no risks and put the ostrich away from public viewing for 45 days, which is the usual period taken by this species.

“The eggs were incubated accordingly. We had taken maximum precaution. Also, we did not enter or disturb the pair between the 45-day period, but then it crossed about 55 days and we realised that none of the eggs had life,” said Manik Palit, the zoo veterinarian.

Palit also added that the eggs were found to be rotten. However, the eggs have been taken out of the ostrich enclosure and kept for study. The ostriches have been set free in the enclosure.

The zoo officials will now have to wait till next year as the mating among the species takes place around February.

“In normal cases, there are 10 per cent to 20 per cent chances for the eggs to fertilise. We will hope to get some positive results next year,” said Palit.

Experts said the farm ostriches like in this case are not very well in incubating as compared to the wild ones. Therefore, the chances of unfertlised eggs are more with farm ostriches.

However, the Tata Zoological Park is by far the second park after Trivandrum Zoo to host these birds.

These large birds generally breed between five and 15 years. The breeding season starts in February and continues till September but the process differs in different geographical regions.