Bhubaneswar, July 11: The Nandankanan Zoological Park, which is searching for a male giraffe for breeding purposes, is planning to borrow one from the Mysore zoo.

The zoo's plans of breeding giraffe went off track after Joy, a six-year-old male giraffe brought from the Alipore zoo in Calcutta, died on February 29, five days after reaching Nandankanan, to give company to lone female giraffe Khushi.

A zoo official said they were in constant touch with the Mysore zoo authorities. "We require a male giraffe for breeding, but the Mysore zoo authorities had proposed that we take a two-month-old male giraffe. Bringing such a young animal is quite risky. So, we have suggested that they loan us a full-grown male giraffe. We will return the animal to Mysore after the mating is successful," he said.

Joy, which had been brought from Calcutta in exchange for four tigers, had died after loosing its balance and collapsing in its enclosure. The post-mortem had revealed it was infected with Theileroisis, a blood parasite transmitted by ticks. Since the death of the animal, the Nandankanan zoo authorities have been in constant touch with the Alipore zoo for a male giraffe. However, that is yet to materialise.

Besides, the Nandanakanan zoo has also decided to facilitate animal exchange programmes with Hyderabad and Lucknow zoos. "A proposal has already been made to bring a male tiger from Hyderabad to breed a new bloodline of tigers. In exchange, we would give them a tigress. We are also planning to bring in animals such as swamp deer and crocodiles from the Lucknow zoo," said deputy director of the zoo Jayant Dash.

A team of officials from Nandankanan will head to Madras Crocodile Bank on July 15 to bring five caiman crocodiles to the zoo. "We have also sent proposals to the zoos in Guwahati and Vishakhapatnam to be part of the animal exchange programme. The zoos would send a list of animals required by them and the animals which they can give us. After we get the details, we will seek the Central Zoo Authority's permission for the exchange programme," said a zoo official.

Nandankanan received a record footfall of visitors in 2015-16 with a total of 33.19 lakh visitors. This was 14 per cent more than the previous financial year that saw 29.04 lakh visitors. Set up in 1960, the zoo now has around 2,000 animals belonging to more than 120 species.