Forget dollars, try sloth bears
Sukumar Ranganathan -
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 3:30 PM
Under life
Last year, on a trip to Mysore, my wife, son and I decided to visit the zoo on a whim. I'd heard that Mysore has a good zoo but had never visited it. Still, I wasn't prepared for what we saw. The zoo simply blew our minds. It had more animals than most zoos I've visited (including a silver-backed gorilla, probably the only one of its kind in India), and in better shape too.
The wife and I decided it must be the tigers.
Indian zoos have more tigers than they can handle and foreign zoos cannot get enough of the cats. And since zoos thrive on the exchange economy, it stood to reason that the Mysore zoo (it has at least two dozen tigers) and other Indian zoos start off with an advantage.
A recent article by the Press Trust of India, however, suggests that the sloth bear is, probably, more valuable than the tiger in the exchange economy.
And that India's prime minister, who oversees the ministry of environment and forests, had abruptly stopped exchanges between Indian and foreign zoos last year.
Here's a bit from the PTI story:
Inmates of Indian zoos can once again look forward to foreign partners as the Prime Minister Office (PMO) has given a green signal for the exchange of animals with foreign zoos.
However, the PMO has asked the environment ministry to continue with the ban on the gifting of animals between the countries as it felt that it was “not in the interest of the conservation of species”.
The animals exchange programme with foreign zoos was abruptly stopped almost a year ago following objections from the PMO.
As a result several proposed animal exchange programmes with zoos in other countries hit a road block, hampering conservation and breeding activities.
And more:
Six programmes are on the anvil, waiting for a green signal from the environment ministry.
Some of them are those from Mysore zoo which has offered a sloth bear in exchange for four African wild dogs (three male and a female) from Singapore Zoo. Mysore zoo has also asked Cologne Zoo in Germany for 18 lion tail monkeys.
Mysore zoo has also proposed to bring four maned wolves from Frankfurt Zoo in exchange for two sloth bears
Clearly, there's a certain currency to the sloth bear which is found only in the sub-continent. Wikipedia tells me that in certain parts of India, it is feared more than the tiger for the damage its sharp claws can do. That may explain why zoos around the world value it as highly as they obviously do.
Interesting asides:
1. I have no idea why the Prime Minister should worry about exchanges between zoos.
2. Sloth bears have been in the news in India because the Kalandar tribe makes a living out of capturing and training these animals and activists have been trying to stop this.
3. My son tells me the sloth bear is one of the eight main bear species in the world. Anyone care to name the other seven?