Nainital Zoo: Animals of Nainital Zoo keep ‘fast’ for 1 day a week, know the reason

Nainital. Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Higher Terrestrial Zoo is situated in Nainital, Uttarakhand. This is a high altitude zoo. Tourists coming to Sarovar Nagri definitely visit the zoo. Many different animals are kept here, mostly animals from the higher Himalayan regions. The diet of all these animals is also different according to their environment. Some animals are carnivorous and some are vegetarian. Carnivorous animals are given meat and eggs by the zoo administration but they are kept hungry for one day a week, which not only keeps the digestive system of the animals healthy, but also maintains the habit of hunting in the forest of carnivorous animals. In fact, once the animals hunt in the forest, they remain hungry for a week, but in the zoo, the animals are given food in small pieces.

Nainital Zoo’s biologist Anuj said while talking to Local 18 that the zoo remains closed on Thursday every week. Non-vegetarian animals are not given food on this day. If a tiger hunts in the forest, it does not need food for a week. Similarly, if animals are kept hungry for a day in the zoo, their habit of eating in the wild also remains intact, and their digestive system also remains fine. Only carnivorous animals are kept hungry for a day. Vegetarian animals are given food twice a day.

Diet is decided by looking at animal feces
Anuj explains that the animals’ behaviour, health and diet are monitored by the zoo staff. The diet of animals is decided by looking at their feces in the morning. He said that Bengal Tiger is given 7 to 8 kg of meat every day. Along with this, the tigress is given 5 to 6 kg of meat daily. The diet of leopards and other carnivorous animals is also decided in a similar manner.