Jungle World celebrates arrival of new bird chicks

Rawalpindi

Jungle World, the zoo at Ayub National Park, has become a haven for animals and birds where they live comfortably close to natural environment and breed. This year has been exceptional for having a record breeding of animals and birds.

While talking to the ‘The News’ here on Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel (r) Tasleem Ul Haq, director of Jungle World park & zoo said that black swans are the largest of all water fowl. Black swan’s closest relatives are mute swans. As the name implies they are mostly black whereas some of the wing feathers are white. They also have reddish or pinkish irises and richly coloured red bills with a white line.

Black swans are native to Australia and Tasmania, but have been introduced to New Zealand and Europe. The black swans are monogamous and often have the same mate for life. They are the territorial and stay in solitary pairs when mating. The breeding season is from February to September, usually the female makes a nest of sticks, dead leaves and debris. While highlighting the recent hatch of five chicks, he said that the present pair of black swan is exceptionally good breeder. For the last four years she is regularly breeding two to three chicks in each season but this time she has record hatch of five chicks which is very rare.

Veterinary consultant, Brigadier (r) Khalid Hameed Chughtai while talking to this scribe  said that this year has been exceptional with regards to breeding of animals and birds. There has been breeding of 25 animals in different breeds and 250 hatching of birds in various breeds of ducks, parrots, pheasants and turkeys. This has been possible due to providing friendly environment to the animals in captivity.

Director General of Army Heritage Foundation, Brigadier (r) Zaman Nasrullah Khan Niazi, said that efforts are made to maintain international standards of keeping the animals and birds in Jungle World zoo. The present state of black swan breeding is heartening in itself. He further said; that purpose behind increasing the zoo area with creation of new enclosures and induction of new animals is to give what we call ‘Edutainment’ i.e. ‘education with entertainment’ to the public especially for children of Rawalpindi and surrounding area.