The eight crocodiles rescued from a private zoo at Madhyamgram spent Sunday away from the public gaze, trying to adapt to their new home at Alipore zoo.

The crocodiles have been kept in an enclosure that was lying unused. It had been cleaned on Friday and Saturday after the state forest department informed the zoo authorities about the impending shift. Nets have been installed around a pond and a moat where the crocodiles have been kept.

The crocodiles are very aggressive and have been chasing anyone who comes close to the nets, said an official of Alipore zoo.

"It is natural for the crocodiles to be aggressive as they are at a new place. They were confined to a small space but now they have a larger area to move around in. We will watch them for a few days before putting them on display," said Asis Samanta, the director of Alipore zoo.

The bigger among the crocodiles have scratches on their body that zoo officials said might have been sustained in fights with each other. "The fights will continue for a few days before the crocodiles calm down," said a zoo official.

One of the crocodiles weighs about 250kg and seven people were needed to carry it from its enclosure at the Badu zoo to a van when it was being shifted on Saturday. Three of the crocodiles are large and fat while the rest are small, said a source at the zoo.

The zoo authorities have posted two guards outside the enclosure to keep an eye on the behaviour of the crocodiles and ensure that they do not climb the 5ft tall net barricade and reach the walkway.

A vet also visited the enclosure to check on them.

Apart from the eight, the zoo has 10 other crocodiles.

Sixty animals, including 49 reptiles, had been shifted to Alipore from the private zoo following an order by the central zoo authority, which felt that that they were not being kept under proper conditions.

The reptiles other than crocodiles do not have injuries but most of them are weak from lack of nutrition.

The other rescued reptiles include a king cobra, six pythons, five Russell's Vipers, three banded kraits, 19 monocellate cobras, two rat snakes, two vine snakes, six sand boas, eight monitor lizards and two turtles.

Most of the snakes were put inside glass enclosures in the reptile house. The monitor lizards have been kept in the open-air grassy patch in the reptile house.

The big draw inside the reptile house was the king cobra, which spent most of Sunday away from the visitors' side of the enclosure.

Samanta said the zoo did not have any other king cobra. "It is about 6.5 metre in length but the diameter is not what such a tall king cobra should have. We will have to feed it well for the next few days," said Samanta.

Zoo sources said they were not sure whether all the rescued animals would be kept at Alipore for good. "They may be shifted to any of the four zoos in Burdwan, Purulia, Jhargram or north Bengal," said a source.