KARACHI: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) held bidding for its controversial tender on Wednesday, sources told Dawn.

The KMC, they said, had sought more animals for the zoo and the contract would be awarded in a few days.

The animals included a pair of endangered brown or black bears that enjoyed a protected status across the country and could not be traded commercially under the law, they added.

According to the Status and Red List of Pakistan’s Mammals, a report compiled by International Union for Conservation of Nature on the basis of a workshop on mammal conservation assessment and management held in 2003, brown bear and the Balochistan black bear are critically endangered whereas the Asiatic black bear or Himalayan black bear is vulnerable.

The other animals are a tigress (a white one or golden tabby or the Siberian) and a female zebra.

When contacted, Sindh Wildlife Conservator Javed Mehar said his department would take action against the zoo as per law if any endangered species was purchased. “I want to ask the KMC officials that what kind of animal conservation message they intend to give to the public by violating law on protected species,” Mr Mehar said.

Reacting to criticism, the senior director of culture, sports and recreation of the KMC, Rehan Khan, said: “I have been assigned a task from my department and I will do it. Our intention is only to educate public and I don’t care what the media says and what you write has no logic.”

He also questioned enforcement of law over protected species and said that if law was enforced, then why the government had allowed people to hold bear shows for public entertainment.

Experts had earlier raised serious concerns over the KMC move considering its poor record of animal care and management. They were especially critical of purchasing of bear and had said that the government institution should have opted for an animal exchange with other zoos instead of purchasing animals through private parties that likely meant buying them from an illegal source.

They had also expressed reservations over purchase of a tigress that could be white or Siberian, according to KMC tender documents that also did not mention the specific species of zebra required.

Experts were of the opinion that taking these big cats (white or Siberian tigress) as mate for a golden tabby tiger (that the zoo currently has) was not right from the conservation point of view as a good zoo practice was to raise a pure breed and not a hybrid one.

Source said that captive breeds of white tigress and Siberian tigress that were well adapted to local environment were available with private collectors and breeders.

The brown bears are native to the northern mountain ranges of Pakistan covering approximately 150,000 square kilometres. Their populations are declining and they have gone extinct in some areas over half a century. They are now distributed over three major mountain ranges (Himalaya, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush).

The black bears are found in northern areas, including Kohistan, Diamer and Mansehra. One species of black bear (Baloshistan black bear) is considered as endemic to Pakistan and is found in the Phub Range of Balochistan. Only few animals of this species are left now in the wild.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2014