City zoo brings over young tigresses from outside state to woo its reluctant males
Times of India | 30 July 2024
Kolkata: It's been 18 years since a tiger cub was born in Alipore zoo. All efforts at breeding since 2006, when Krishna gave birth to a male cub, have gone in vain because the males are either not interested or unable to perform.
Currently, the zoo has four tigers but only two of its five tigresses are young enough to mate. So, it has now decided to bring in one tigress each from Visakhapatnam zoo and Odisha's Nandankanan to try and increase its tiger count.
"We have been trying to facilitate tiger breeding for years but somehow we have not been successful.This time we are trying to get more female tigers and will try to switch partners to see which tiger is compatible with which tigress," said zoo director Subhankar Sengupta.
In 2016, Alipore zoo had brought four tigers — Rishi, Payel, Sheela and Snehashish — from Nandankanan, but Sheela and Snehashish were sent to Bengal Safari in Siliguri, where they successfully bred and had cubs. In 2019, it was decided to bring Snehashish back to Alipore and mate him with Payel and white tigress Rupa. But Snehashis distanced himself from both.
To revive its breeding programme, the zoo recently brought over a young female and male from Bengal Safari. In April, a white tigress arrived from Visakhapatnam zoo. "All of them are around three years of age. The two new tigresses that will come are even younger. We will go for a 1:2 male-female ratio and hope the breeding attempt is successful," said Sengupta.
The state zoo authority is now awaiting central nod to acquire the two new tigresses. Once that comes, a tigress from Nandankanan will make its way to Alipore in exchange for a pair of giraffes. The exchange animal for Visakhapatnam is yet to be decided.
Zookeepers say the process of pairing tigers for mating is one of trial and error. "During the mating period, the tigers are kept together in the same enclosure under close observation. If the animals display aggressive behaviour, they are immediately separated. Successful mating can last up to 3-4 days," said a zoo official. He added that despite the females showing interest, the males often fail to perform, leading to frustration in the females and resulting in violent fights.
In earlier instances of mating attempts at Alipore, even after months of successful pairing, the males either lost interest or fled from the spot. The tigers were even given libido-enhancing drugs and vitamins, but that didn't help either.
Another zoo official said the problem could be the captive environment and overall conditions in the zoo. He explained that they had earlier tried mating captive-bred tigresses with tigers from the wild. While the tigresses were accustomed to human presence, the wild tigers were highly sensitive to human surroundings and CCTV cameras, causing them to shy away. "This time, we will only mate animals that have been in captivity for an extended period," he said.