Alipore: Visitors to the zoo this winter will get to see a few fresh faces among the familiar ones, four of them from the Japanese city of Yokohama.

These new arrivals have just about started to feel at home in the zoo and should be ready for public viewing by the time the crowds swell later this month.

The menagerie includes four eastern grey kangaroos that were flown in from Yokohama on October 26. A pair each of jaguars and lions and six mouse deer from Hyderabad zoo checked in a day later.

The zoo authorities had been concerned about the well-being of the kangaroo quartet because of their previous experience with the species. Four red kangaroos brought from the Czech Republic in 2011 died within a year. Joey, a female born to one of them, died in October 2015.

"After a month's observation, we are satisfied with the way the kangaroos have adapted to their new home," zoo director Asis Kumar Samanta told Metro.

Two CCTV cameras have been installed in the enclosure to keep a check on the animals. Zookeepers Motilal Ram and Anup Ram have developed such a bond with the quartet in just over a month that they have them literally eating out of their hands, Samanta said.

The authorities had procured different types of grass from a fodder farm in Kalyani to understand the kangaroos' palate. They instantly took to jowar and guinea grass, besides carrot, sweet potato and apple.

The jaguar couple, Malala and Arya, have had no appetite problems either. They polish off five to six kilos of buffalo meat every day. The two have been kept in a shelter with a partition. They are said to be "curious about each other", often exchanging growls and glances.

The lions, Shruti and Vishwas, had bruises after a four-day road journey from Hyderabad to Calcutta. They are better now and eat around 8kg of buffalo meat every day.