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Four years after its last giraffe died, Delhi Zoo hopes to bring five more from Thailand

The Delhi zoo’s last surviving giraffe, Ankit, had died in June 2015, after suffering a heart attack and kidney failure. It was an offspring of a giraffe pair brought from Kolkata in the late 90s, as per reports.

The zoo director has written to three Thailand zoos.

Visitors to the National Zoological Park — commonly known as the Delhi zoo — could soon get to see giraffes, with its director writing to three zoos in Thailand on Tuesday to acquire five giraffes — three females and two males — for the capital.

Renu Singh, the director, said she had also written to zoos in Mysore, Patna and Alipur. “We want to bring giraffes here, as this is a national zoo. Our visitors, especially children, would be happy to see them. We’ve tried for some time to acquire them from Indian zoos, but we believe we could be more successful with the zoos in Thailand,” Singh said.

The Delhi zoo’s last surviving giraffe, Ankit, had died in June 2015, after suffering a heart attack and kidney failure. It was an offspring of a giraffe pair brought from Kolkata in the late 90s, as per reports.

Singh said they already have an enclosure ready for receiving and keeping the giraffes. She added that the zoo acquired three new leopards — a female named Bunty from Jammu and Kashmir, and a pair from Chhattisgarh — around September last year. The zoo is also planning to acquire more snakes from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, after having recently renovated its enclosure for the reptile.

Authorities had recently concluded a census of animals in the zoo, and found the population of deer had increased. “We also counted nocturnal animals through CCTVs and found babies of foxes and jackals,” Singh said. The census report will be submitted to the Delhi High Court, which had ordered authorities to carry out a count while hearing petitions on data irregularities in the zoo.