Byculla Zoo to buy 6 Humboldt penguins for Rs 2.40 cr

Mumbai’s Byculla Zoo is all set to get foreign additions with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allocating Rs 2.40 crore to buy six Humboldt penguins and an additional Rs 19 crore for their upkeep.

But the municipal corporation’s decision to acquire three pairs of these flightless birds has been met with a lukewarm response with the main worry of animal activists being how well the penguins will adjust to Mumbai’s humid temperature.

Humboldt penguins are native to the desert coast of Peru and Chile in South America and breeds in a hot Mediterranean to desert climate. They get their name from the cold water current that they swim in. This particular batch of birds which are being bought from Thailand will arrive in December and the BMC officials explanation is that since the birds are coming from another South Asian country, the weather conditions will be similar here.

But Anish Andheria, president of the Wildlife Conservation Trust, is not convinced. “Being a charismatic species, it is likely that they will attract large crowds. But then, the zoo has been unable in the past to keep wild animals. How well the penguins do here in the long run is therefore a matter of worry,” she told The Times of India.

BMC plans to give the Byculla Zoo a makeover and has set aside Rs 440 crore for this purpose and the introduction of Humboldt penguins is a part of this plan, said a report in The Indian Express.

BMC plans to build a temperature-controlled glass enclosure which will have water and sand-filled land halves. Maintaining the temperature at 22 degree Celsius, the water segment will have 400 fish belonging to 67 species. Special diet and care will be maintained for the aquatic birds.