A file picture of a rhino being fed at the Assam State Zoo

April 12: The Assam State Zoo is undertaking an animal exchange programme with zoos in Singapore and Thailand.

Under the programme, the state zoo will get pumas, zebras, red lechew, chimpanzee, orangutan and annoa from zoos in Singapore and Thailand in exchange of rhinos and an elephant.

The Assam zoo has signed a draft memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Zoological Garden. The Thailand Zoological Park Organisation has presented a draft memorandum of understanding and has also shown interest in sharing expertise in wildlife management.

“An understanding has been reached in principle for the exchange of animals. We will give a pair of rhinos and a female elephant to Singapore zoo, which has agreed to provide us with a pair each of pumas, zebras, red lechew and annoa,” said divisional forest officer of the Assam State Zoo, Narayan Mahanta, who had recently visited Singapore and Thailand along with an engineer of the state zoo, G.K. Debmedhi.

The duo received training in zoo management in Singapore. They returned on April 7.

Mahanta and Debmedhi later visited the Dusit and Khekhow zoos in Thailand. The Thailand Zoological Park Organisation will spare three chimpanzees and two orangutans in exchange for a male rhino.

“They want our expertise in rhino management and we are interested in their expertise in clouded leopard,” Mahanta said.

The Singapore zoo has agreed to bear the entire transport costs to be incurred in the exchange of animals to and from Assam. The animals will be transported by air.

Mahanta said a team of officials from the Singapore Zoological Garden also plan to visit the Assam State Zoo to help them design it as per their needs and considerations.

The animal exchange policy is subject to clearance from the Central Zoo Authority and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.