A Penguin colony in hot and humid Mumbai
The civic body’s decision to host a tiny colony of the endangered Humboldt Penguins at the Byculla Zoo, for which purpose it took the trouble of ferrying 8 of them from an aquarium in Seoul, South Korea, has the animal activists fuming. The activists’ main concern is that they would find it difficult to acclimatize even in the controlled air-conditioned special enclosure that has been created for them. Also, it could disturb their natural cycle of breathing and eating.
The eight baby penguins were brought in two days ago and immediately transferred to a refrigerated van for transportation to the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan. They are 62cm to 65 cm in height and weigh around 3.5 to 4.5kg.
The city zoo has acquired them for around Rs 2 crore, as part of its ambitious Rs 2.50 crore modernisation plan, an official told a wire agency. A penguin expert from New Zealand has been hired for five years to take case of the flightless bird. According to zoo authorities, filtration of the water and cool temperatures will help make the penguins comfortable.
The birds are at present being kept in an artificial pool. According to animal rights activists, this species of penguins are deep swimmers and used to surviving in cold climatic conditions. However, ‘‘the survival of the penguins is impossible in the artificial setting. Also zoo authorities would be wasting a lot of water, which could be used for the other fruitful purposes in the city,” said Shivani Sharma, an animal rescuer; the activists also said that the zoo authorities would be feeding the penguins artificially which would again disturb their
natural instinct of hunting for fish under water. A trustee on the board of the NGO Save Our Strays, Rinky Karmakar, said, “It is known that penguins are kept for display, which means we are making a mockery of them. We are supposed to visit the animals in their natural habitat and not keep them in artificial settings,” added Karmakar. “I also don’t understand why they are doing this. We have just had a severe drought situation in Maharashtra and now the penguins have been kept in an artificial pool without any proper infrastructure in place. This is a complete waste of water in the city.” Denying the allegations of the animal rights activists, the director of Byculla Zoo, Sanjay Tripati, said, “The animal rights activists are not aware that this particular species of penguins can be bred in captivity and are intended to be exhibits. They can survive in temperatures ranging between 12 degrees and 18 degrees Celsius. The activists need to do their homework.”