Three zoological parks, two in the state and one in Andhra Pradesh, are involved in the project to prevent this shy animal from falling prey to inbreeding.
Wildlife experts are working towards preserving the bloodline of the mouse deer. Three zoological parks, two in the state and one in Andhra Pradesh, are involved in the project to prevent this shy animal from falling prey to inbreeding.
Sri Chamarajendra Zoological park Mysore, Nehru Zoological Park Hyderabad and Dr Shivarama Karanth Zoological enclosure at Pilikula Nisarga Dhama at Mangalore have become the mouse deer triangle of India.
Thanks to the vision of Mysore zoo executive director BP Ravi, Nehru Zoological Park director Mallikarjuna Rao and Shivarama Karanth Zoo director Jayaprakash Bhandary, the mouse deer will get a lease of life. These three zoological parks are working out modalities to exchange males to stop inbreeding and maintain pure bloodline of this species.
The initiative came about after the Pilikula Nisarga Dhama’s drive to increase their numbers bore fruit “The mouse deer had problems mating in a typical zoo enclosure. But during the last two years, we shifted them to a specially designed enclosure, quite similar to their habitat in the wild. This worked and today we have a happy problem of plenty - there are more males than females and we are afraid there will be in-breeding, which might damage the bloodline,” Bhandary said.
The mouse deer is very attractive and visitors in all the three zoological parks throng to see it.
Rao said: “We have entered into an exchange programme with the Mysore Zoo, which has a similar programme with the Pilikula Nisarga Dhama.
“The males have to move from one facility to another to fertilise with the females and the male offsprings should be shunted from one zoo to another to maintain the bloodline,” he added.
“Breeding was also happening in Mysore Zoo and sooner or later we will also have males in plenty, so we need to have regular exchange programmes of mouse deer,” Ravi said.
Why this sudden interest in mouse deer in captive facilities? Bhandary said: “The numbers in the wild were dwindling, though it has not endangered yet, but since they are cute to look at and harmless, people keep them as pets. The programme can have international impact as many captive facilities globally want this species to be in their repertoire.”
The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has released a grant of Rs2.5 lakh for improving the ‘captivity enclosure’ at Pilikula under the ‘enrichment programme’. The grant is being spent on stretching the enclosure and creating hiding places, caves and simulating natural surroundings for mouse deer.
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