Sweet potatoes, carrots & beans added to orangutans’ diet after experts flag concerns | Bhubaneswar News


Sweet potatoes, carrots & beans added to orangutans’ diet after experts flag concerns
A technical committee member examines one of the orangutans at Nandankanan Zoological Park

Bhubaneswar: Authorities at Nandankanan Zoological Park, where the five rescued infant orangutans are kept in quarantine at the moment, have added steamed sweet potatoes, carrots and beans to the great apes’ daily diet of apples and bananas from Monday onwards to improve their nutrition and support recovery. The move comes a day after veterinarians and a paediatrician from AIIMS, Bhubaneswar recommended major changes to the orangutans’ diet after medical examinations and blood tests revealed that three of them were anaemic.“To increase their calorie intake and for quick recovery from anaemia, the AIIMS experts suggested increasing the orangutans’ food intake. Based on their recommendation, the diet has been changed,” Nandankanan’s deputy director, Pradeep Mirase, said.The experts opined that their condition indicates the animals were separated from their mothers at a very young age and later hand-reared without adequate maternal nutrition.The infants, rescued from a forest in Balasore on Sept 8 under unclear circumstances and suspected to be linked to an illegal wildlife trafficking network, are being cared for at the zoo’s hand rearing centre. They are housed in a closed, air-conditioned enclosure and kept under round-the-clock veterinary observation.The zoo has also introduced behavioural enrichment measures to keep the infants active and mentally stimulated. A ladder has been placed inside the enclosure to encourage play, climbing and the development of natural arboreal skills.Zoo officials said the orangutans are gradually adapting to the enclosure and showing signs of settling in. A technical committee is monitoring their health, growth and behaviour as further assessments continue.With investigations into their origin and trafficking still underway, zoo authorities said efforts are focused on providing the highest standard of care to help the orangutans recover before any long-term rehabilitation plan is considered.



Source link

HTML Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com