Mumbai: Byculla Zoo plans to trade its ‘happy feet’ for crocodiles

The current enclosure of the zoo has a capacity for 25 penguins. File pic

Once criticised for bringing penguins to Mumbai, the Byculla Zoo now has an excess number of these "happy feet" and is looking to exchange them with other zoos in the country. The zoo currently has 15 penguins.

The zoo authorities had brought eight penguins - three males and five females - from the Coex Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea in 2016. One of them later died. At the time, the authorities faced flak for not having adequate infrastructure to accommodate the foreign birds.

Now, after almost seven years, the number of penguins has increased to more than double with eight newborns. There are currently four pairs of male and female penguins in the colony. Donald and Daisy gave birth to Dora (female) on February 21 this year; Molt and Flipper had Siri (female) on October 2 2022; Papaya and Olive became parents to Nemo (male) on December 13, 2022. Oreo and Bubble is a fourth pair.

"Every zoo in the country declares the names of animals, which they can exchange. Now that we have many penguins, we can exchange them with other zoos, as per the Central Zoo Authority guidelines. We need crocodiles, gharials, turtles and some other animals. So, we are willing to exchange them for the penguins," said Dr Sanjay Tripathi, director of Byculla Zoo, also known as Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan And Zoo. The current enclosure of the zoo has a capacity for 25 penguins.

The Byculla Zoo has already sent a proposal to Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad that is home to gharials, which belong to the crocodile family. "We haven't received any reply from them yet. The penguin enclosure requires high-end infrastructure with a team of experts; we suspect that it may take time," said Tripathi.