Byculla zoo to get its first sloth bear soon

Mumbai's Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo (VJB) will bring home, a pair of one-year-old sloth bear and jackal all the way from Surat. This will be the first time in itshistory that the zoo will house a sloth bear.

However, Mumbaikars will have to wait for at least a month before they can watch them in their enclosures as the animals will be kept in a quarantine facility.

They will be brought to VJB by a team of Veterinarian officer, an animal keeper and a transportation team, said an official from VJB.

The shaggy-coated, medium-sized sloth bear found in scrub grasslands and dense forests. They feed primarily on ants and termites and have thick muzzles, large paws, long claws and carry their babies on their back. They are known to challenge and fight off tigers.

Last month, VJB had brought a pair of leopards and jackals from Pilikula zoo in Mangaluru.

"We had a pair of Himalayan black bears, Ganga and Jamuna, who succumbed to old age a few years ago. This is the first time that the visitors to the zoo will get to see a slothbear. We are setting up a special enclosure for the bears will be ready within two months," said a zoo official adding that though the zoo recently got a pair of jackals they decided to bring in an extra pair of jackals from Surat to keep animals with different bloodlines for mating.

Senior zoo officials informed that they are also eagerly awaiting clearance from Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to bring in lions from Sakkarbaug zoo in Junagadh, Gujarat. "The CZA will most likely have a meeting this month and if the proposal is cleared we will have permissions to bring in the lions as well by end of May or June," said the official.

Dr Sanjay Tripathi, Director VJB Zoo said that the work on enclosures are being carried out in full swing and by June-July visitors will surely get to see leopards, jackals and sloth bears in their enclosure.

Meanwhile work on enclosures of hyenas, lions, the small cat complex, Madras pond turtles, blackbucks, swamp deers and two bird aviaries is being carried out on war footing. They are expected to be ready within three to four months. Also, all the proposed 17 enclosures will be ready for public viewing by January 2020.