Mysuru:  Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, popularly known as the Mysuru Zoo, which created a record of sorts by transporting 12-foot tall Giraffe named Jayachamaraja to Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden at Guwahati on road (3,200 kilometres), has received four new animals from Assam State Zoo, Guwahati, under the animal exchange programme.

The Assam State Zoo, after receiving Jayachamaraja on Dec.5, has given Mysuru Zoo Bagori, a five-year-old female Indian Rhino, a pair of Hoolock Gibbon named Deepu and Munni, aged eight and nine years and a female Black Leopard Meena, aged 2.5 years. 

The new guests arrived at Mysuru Zoo on Dec.13. 

Mysuru Zoo Executive Director Ajit M. Kulkarni said that all the new animals were healthy and have been kept under observation. The new animals will be released into their enclosures for public viewing after a week, he added.

Indian Rhinoceros: Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Unicornis), also called as Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros, is the largest of the three Asian Rhinoceroses. The Indian Rhinoceros weighs between 1,800 and 2,700 kgs and stands about 7 feet high and is about 11.5 feet long. The Indian Rhinoceros is more or less equivalent in size to the White Rhinoceros of Africa and is distinguishable from the Javan Rhinoceros by its greater size, the presence of a large horn, tubercles on its skin, and a different arrangement of skin folds.

Hoolock Gibbon: The Hoolock Gibbon is tailless like all other apes. However, the species possesses a tuft of hair in the anogenital region. Males are black or blackish, with a white strip above their eyes which curves up at either end. The face of both sexes is black. In contrast to the males, adult females are lighter, usually ranging from buff and pale to various shades of tan with some brown, grey and yellowish coloration. The average height of a Hoolock Gibbon is 81.2 cms (32.0 inches). Females weigh around 6.1 kgs while males weigh around 6.9 kgs. They are native to eastern Bangladesh, North-East India and South-West China. Hoolocks are the second-largest of the Gibbons, after the Siamang.

Black leopard: Black Panther is the melanistic colour variant of any Panthera species. Black Panthers in Asia and Africa are called leopards and those in the Americas are Jaguars. Melanism in the Jaguar is conferred by a dominant allele and in the leopard (Panthera pardus) by a recessive allele. Close examination of the colour of these black cats will show that the typical markings are still present, but are hidden by the excess black pigment melanin, giving an effect similar to that of printed silk. This is called “ghost striping.” Black leopards only differ from other leopards in the colour of their coat, a genetic variation that’s recessive and known as “melanism.” Black leopards are found more often in densely forested habitats. Most confirmed sightings come from Southeast Asia. The concentration of these is in the Malay Peninsula, where more than 90 percent of leopards are black.