Big cat lovers, go wild with joy. Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park in Ranchi will get two female leopards from Lucknow on Thursday as part of an animal exchange programme.

A two-member team - Ajay Kumar, veterinary doctor of Ranchi zoo, and ranger Jairaj - will escort the two leopards, both aged around two, from the Lucknow-based Nawab Wajid Ali Shah zoo to the Ranchi one.

Birsa zoo in exchange will give its Lucknow counterpart two male sloth bears.

So far, Ranchi zoo has four leopards - one female and three male. Two male leopards were rescued from Mandar in 2013 while the third came from Guwahati in 2012.

The primary reason behind getting two young female leopards was to accelerate the breeding programme at the zoo, the vet said over phone from Lucknow on Wednesday morning.

"The lone female leopard at our zoo is aged around 17 years, and is therefore too old. The two-year-old leopards are young, hale and hearty," he said. "We should reach Ranchi by tomorrow (Thursday) noon," he added.

He added that a team from the Lucknow zoo was also coming to Ranchi to take away the sloth bears. The Lucknow team will also take sloth bears from the Bhubaneswar zoo.

The leopards are arriving at a good time. The number of people visiting the zoo has gone up, thanks to a lion cub put on public display.

On December 17, Ranchi zoo's regal beauty, lioness Priyanka, had given birth to a cub - the first ever successful lion breeding in the zoo.

Officials said the cub had been put for public viewing about two weeks ago.

A private firm employee Sudhir Singh who recently visited the zoo with family was elated to see the cub.

"My kids were overjoyed to see the cub running around its mother, jumping and playing. They now want to visit the zoo more often," he said.

There are more attractions on cards. According to zoo officials, one of the long pending projects - a giant aquarium - is now set to debut later this month.

The project was hanging fire for around four years. Around six months ago, after a few rounds of failed tenders, the zoo guardians managed to handpick Mumbai-based Utekar Fisheries to undertake the construction work.

The cost of construction of the aquarium is estimated to be around Rs 3.64 crore.

Talking to this correspondent a few weeks ago, zoo director Ashok Kumar said they were planning a formal inauguration of the aquarium by the end of March.

"The work is almost over," one of the caretakers said. "The aquarium will be about 9,000sqft, with a special glass tank with 55 partitions, quarantine tanks, fish rearing arrangements, filtration points and temperature regulation systems, among others," the caretaker added.

The Ormanjhi-based zoo, which spans 104 hectares, has over 1,100 animals.

How excited are you about the new zoo members?

Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com