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Bhubaneswar ( Orissa) : Forest officials and wildlife activists were on Tuesday shared cakes and engaged in merrymaking with school children to mark the first birth day of two female tiger cubs, Khusi and Payal in Orissa’s Nandankanan Zoological Park here in Bhubaneswar, which is famous for endangered white tigers.
The tiger cubs wearing new cloths joined the birthday party with much interest with the menu chart containing all tasty and mouth-watering delicacies. Joys and jubilations were being simply overflowed in the Zoo for few hours in the afternoon.
The Zoo authorities have been celebrating the birthday since August 2006. The female cubs were born to nine-year-old white tigress Kushum in the zoo October 20, 2008, a senior Zoo official informed.
This was second such event, after the officials successfully had been hosting birth day of three other tiger cubs, Rishi, Sitesh and Prachi since last three years. The three white tigers were born to Rohit and Salija, normal colour tigers.
A special cake was also made for the party; he said adding special chicken diets were served to the cubs amid host of visitors. The enclosures were decorated with flowers, balloons and a ''happy birth day'' banner.
The main entrance of the Zoo was posted with a large “Happy Birthday Wish” hoarding indicating the birthday of the tigers and a brief history of their clan.
Over 1200 wild animals of different groups of animals (reptiles, birds and mammals) are housed in the zoo. A number of species of fishes may be seen in Aquarium. 98 species of free-living wild animals are found in the sanctuary area. The floral diversity of Nandankanan manifests itself in 424 species of plants of 87 families.
The zoo enjoys a good reputation, internationally, for successfully breeding black panthers, gharial crocodiles and white tigers in captivity. Interestingly, this is one of the few zoos where you can see animals in their natural environment.
Recently, Nandankanan Zoological Park became the first Zoo in the country to get the membership of World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).
