Pilikula park gets 2 Asiatic Lions and birds from Gujarat

Mangaluru

The Pilikula biological park near here has procured a pair of Asiatic lions, a male and a female, under an exchange programme from Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden, Junagadh in Gujarat.

These Asiatic animals are presently found only in the Gir National Forests in Gujarat.

The park already has three female lions.

Director of the biological park H Jayaprakash Bhandary said the lions were brought to the Park on January 7 and were now in an enclosure for people to view.

The lions, aged around six years, would be kept separately from the other animals, he said.

Bhandary said they could not be mixed or allowed to inter-breed.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed these Asiatic lions as an endangered species.

A pair of white peacocks, four Alexandrine parakeets, a pair of Lady Amherst’s pheasant, four each of Ibis and Spoonbills had also been brought to the park under the exchange programme from the Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden, he said in a release.

The birds would be kept in a specially designed aviary in the park, he said.

PTI