Spotted deer from VOC Park Zoo released into the wild
A total of 26 spotted deer that had been housed in the now defunct VOC Park Zoo in Coimbatore were released into the wild on Monday.
The Forest Department said that 10 adult males, 11 females and ve fawns were released into the wild at the Siruvani foothills, falling under the Boluvampatti forest range. One spotted deer is left in the park as it was being treated for an ailment.
According to the Department, faecal pellets of all the spotted deer were collected and sent to the Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC) at Vandalur to check the presence of diseases, especially tuberculosis. were found free diseases.
From March, authorities of the zoo stopped providing concentrated feeds for the deer and started giving forest fodders, which spotted deer consume in the wild, from Siruvani foothills.
The deer were carefully chased from the zoo enclosure into a modi ed truck of Coimbatore Corporation, which is used for capturing stray cattle, around 6 a.m.
They were released into the wild around 9.30 a.m. The Department has tasked a team of frontline sta to monitor the deer to check whether they are able to forage in the wild.
The zoo is housing 20odd sambar deer and the
They from
Department sent their faecal pellets to the AIWC for tests.
District Forest Ocer N. Jayaraj said the sambar deer would be released into the wild when they were
t for release, after following the same modalities.
Dierent varieties of birds and reptiles that were housed in the zoo were shifted to the Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur in Chennai, and Amirthi Zoological Park in Vellore district on November 3 last year.
The Central Zoo Authority had cancelled the recognition of the zoo, a landmark in the city, in January 2022 due to infrastructure and maintenance issues, and it was remaining closed to visitors since then.