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Tall order for female giraffes at Zoo

23 Jun 2014 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

It was revealed that four female giraffes at the Dehiwala Zoo had been living without male animals for more than seven years, because of the high transport costs.

When asked why steps were not taken to bring down a male animal for their company, the deputy director of the Dehiwala Zoo Dammika Malsinghe said they had found it impossible to do so because of the high transport cost.

“It costs so much to transport a male giraffe by air even though we locate an animal.

“According to the law in the countries where we can obtain a male giraffe, the animals should be kept with its mother until it is six months old. And it grows quickly in height in six months, which makes it impossible to transport in a normal flight which is only about five feet in height. So we have to charter a special plane of nine feet height but it costs billions to do so,” Ms. Malsinghe said.

She said they had studied the possibility of bringing down a male on exchange for an elephant but had found it impossible to find an elephant to do so.

“We have discussed with Japan to obtain a male giraffe. But we have still been unable to do it because it is a complex process. We need to locate an animal then call tenders and charter a plane. It is not easy to do all at once. It gets delayed somehow or other.”

This came to light when UNP members made a fact finding inspection tour in the Dehiwala Zoo on Thursday (19).

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Tall order for female giraffes at Zoo

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