Zoo authorities deny feeding beef to animals

Mumbai: The Veer Jijamata Udyan authorities on Thursday clarified that they don’t feed beef to animals in the park, instead their daily diet consists of mutton, chicken, vegetables and supplementary vitamin tablets.

“The diet of zoo animals mainly consists of mutton, chicken, eggs, vegetables and supplementary vitamin table-ts,” said Dr. Sanjay Tripathi, director of the Veer Jijamata Udyan.

According to experts, beef is a major source of nutrition for carnivorous animals. “The natural diet of carnivores co-nsists of beef,” said Dr Sanjiv Pinjarkar, veterinarian officer at the park. “In jungle, these animals hunt chital, cows, goats, sheep, dogs and buffalos.”

Dr Pinjarkar stated that they are six rusty spotted cats at the park who are carnivores but do not eat beef. They are among the smallest members of the cat family, who have more variety in their diet. They eat boiled eggs, fish and cat feed.

According to experts, changing animals’ diet is not easy, particularly as animals in captivity are not in their natural habitat. This means the animals have to recalibrate their diets carefully to account for substitutions.

Meanwhile, an IFS officer Pravin Kaswan said, “If there is by any means lack of food availability in national parks or tiger reserves then prey enrichment is done by providing more protection to the area or by introducing some herbivorous species in that region.”