Indore parts with twin lions & a tiger; waiting to receive baboon from Chandigarh

The execution begins as two lions and a tiger departed from Kamla Nehru Prani Sangrahalaya, Indore on Friday on their journey to Chhatbir Zoo also known as Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park, located 17 kilometres from Chandigarh, Punjab.

Visitors are sure to miss the twin lion brothers Baban and Gagan, who were born in the city zoo. “Both of them are charming and four years old, which means that they are fully grown and are of breeding age,” Dr Uttam Yadav, city zoo in-charge, said.

The zoo offered these wild cats in exchange as we have a healthy population of Asiatic lions and Bengal tigers. “We have 12 lions in the zoo and with the twins gone, we will still have 10, which is much more than most zoos in the country,” Yadav said.

City zoo has 8 tigers and with one off to his journey, Indore will still have 7 of them. “We have to consider that too many wild cats in an enclosure can also be problematic as they require larger territory and of course expenses,” Yadav said.

However, parting with the wild cats was a difficult task for zoo authorities as well as regular visitors.

The story of twin brothers

Baban and Gagan were born to lioness Megha in city zoo in 2015. They were born by the union of lion Akash and lioness Megha.

Megha had even given birth to Sultan and Sundari in 2017 following the twin brothers. While Sundari survived, Sultan passed away with a heart attack at the age of 1.5 years. The reason for sudden heart attack in a young cub was understood to be rejection by his mother.

Baban and Gagan having survived the battle of such incidents and losing their brother have been some of the strongest members of the pride.

Exotic baboon to come in exchange

In the exchange, city zoo will receive exotic baboon. Baboons are some of the world’s largest monkeys and males of different species average from 33 to 82 pounds. Baboon bodies are 20 to 40 inches long, not including substantial tails of varying lengths.  There are five species of the baboon—olive, yellow, chacma, Guinea, and sacred—scattered across various habitat in Africa and Arabia.

 The olive baboon is the most extensively distributed of the baboon family. The baboon, like other Old World monkeys, does not have a prehensile (gripping) tail—meaning their tails are not used as a hand—but they are still able to climb when necessary. They all have dog-like noses, powerful jaws, sharp canine teeth, and thick fur. Males have a longer mane around the neck, called a ruff.