Pilikula biological park gets new inmates

The world's largest freshwater bird, Dalmatian pelican, with wings bigger than albatrosses, is one of the new inmates at the Pilikula biological park at nearby Moodushedde under an exchange policy with other zoos.
The pelican, along with a rose winged parakeet and plum headed parakeets have arrived at the park from Udaipur zoo.
With a view to prevent in-breeding and preserve the blood line under the biological park's exchange policy, the park authorities also welcomed a six-year-old lion from Udaipur Zoo, park director H Jayapraksh Bhandary said.
With this, the number of lions in the park has gone up to five, including three female ones.

He said the park had exchanged an eight-year-old tiger and six-year-old Afro-Asian lioness to Udaipur in exchange for the lion and the birds.
The park would soon have a white tiger as an added attraction, he said in a release.

Bhandary said the tigers at the park are in great demand in other zoos due to their good health and bloodlines.
The park has 11 tigers, of which three are tigresses.
Talks were already on to get a white tiger from Rajkot and it would arrive soon.
A few months back, the park had acquired a 10-year-old female hippopotamus.
Kaveri is the first among three hippos that the park has contracted from Bannerghatta National Park under the animal exchange programme approved by the Central Zoo Authority.

Later two more hippopotamus - a male and female- arrived at Pilikula Biological Park, taking their number to three.
Pilikula is a major eco-education and tourism development project promoted by the Dakshina Kannada district administration. The biological park is one of the components of the many attractions it has for visitors.