KARACHI: City zoo gets crocodiles from Haleji sanctuary
KARACHI, Jan 21: Crocodiles from the Haleji sanctuary were recently brought to the Karachi zoo to beef up its dwindling reserve of crocodiles that had in course of several years refused to breed because of several limitations.
The process of baptising and breeding has been going on since a decade at the Haleji crocodile breeding enclosure, where female have been producing several clutches every year to raise threatened crocodiles.
It is only breeding centre in the country where reptiles once found in all freshwater lakes and rivers in Pakistan lived. They have all been wiped out of existence by poachers and a time came when only a few were left alive in Haleji lake, managed by the Sindh Wildlife department. They, therefore, decided to breed them.
Makhi Dhand, once considered a home of marsh crocodiles, also ran dry of these distant relatives of the extinct dinosaurs. There are reports that some crocodiles are struggling for survival in marshy area near Sukkur, where the last year draught killed many but, “there is a hope that the survivors will breed”, said Hussain Bux Bhagat, deputy conservator, who manages the area along with the darlings of the Indus — the blind dolphin reserve.
Karachi zoo was helpless in increasing the highly attractive reptile that for people is a symbol of viciousness, danger and fear.
Their growth declined owing to lack of enough breeding area and stress of visitors raising din that discourages the cold-blooded reptiles from going through the gamut of courtship making a nest, laying eggs and to lie and wait until the newly-formed hatchling grunt for help from mama. She, as a routine, digs them out, catches them softly in the mouth, gives them a dip in the freshwater, that every youngster instinctively realises that
KARACHI, Jan 21: Crocodiles from the Haleji sanctuary were recently brought to the Karachi zoo to beef up its dwindling reserve of crocodiles that had in course of several years refused to breed because of several limitations.