Food, Healthcare of the Wild in Mysore Zoo

By Shivaraj KT

(The essay is written from the insights given from Ramappa, Security of the snake house of Mysore Zoo)

Mysore which is renowned as the cultural capital of Karnataka has its cultural heritage from the rich political dynastic history of the Wodeyar’s rule.  The Wodeyar’s contribution to the city has enriched the cultural legacy of the space.

one such contributions is the ChamaRajendra Zoo popularly known as the Mysore zoo. The Chamarajendra zoo was established in 1892 by Chamarajendra Wodeyar of Mysore in 10 acres of land but today it has grown 100 acres accommodating 150 species across the globe many of the wild are from the different parts of the world like that of Henna and wild dogs from Asia, giraffe cheetahs and Zebra from Africa.

The vibrant species of the zoo is the important attraction of the Mysore tourism.  to sustain the diversity of the species it is important to take good health care which providing nutritious food

The essay looks into the Food Supply and the Healthcare of the wild of Mysore Zoo. the zoo has 300 animal caretakers who work to supply food and take care about overall growth of the animals in an approximation the zoo on a daily basis receives 300 kgs of meat,  400 kgs of fruits and vegetables and 750 kgs of pulses and grains and huge 6000 kitties of grass feed the animals in addition to this mealworms are breaded in the zoo to cater the food needs of the wide animal diversity one of the chief food of the carnivorous is the fish and chicken  every lion, two Turkey chicken with beef and a fish is served in every meal. the fish to the crocodiles is served on alternative days.

one of the important responsibilities of the to take care of the health of the animal from diseases

there are chances of infective diseases affecting the wildlife of the zoo so, there are disinfection mates across the spaces which has high visitor’s density like that of the main gate and sensitive areas.

The Other important measure taken by the veterinary team of the zoo is to preventerory  medication for the diseases like foot and mouth disease which are common among the Zoo animals hence the medicine with syringes are loaded in a special gun and fired into the animal’s rump .the medication goes into the body within fraction of seconds and syringes fall  which is taken away from the caretaker. Even with all these precautions if the animal falls sick it is taken to the zoo hospital.

The Zoo hospital also has an animal orphanage which has abandoned animals and also animals which are not taken care from their mothers the animals in the orphanage are hand raised by the caretakers and constantly fed milk from the caretakers and hence this demands 250 litres of milk to the zoo.

one of the important recent developments in the adopting the wild in the zoo is the ban on the capture of wild animals from the forest so the zoo to sustain the animal diversity has to enter into mutual agreements of breeding animals with another zoo .Individuals can also have close contact with animals by adopting animals and help the management to share the expenses of the animal.