Bengaluru Zoo Has A Beef Problem: Buffalo Meat Hard To Source; Mutton Too Expensive

The Centre's ban on cattle slaughter will have a significant impact on Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), which has the highest density of carnivores in the country. Officials at the park ¡ª which requires close to 900 kg of beef daily for its 1,000-odd carnivores ¡ª are now forced to look at alternatives. Although mutton could replace their staple, it would be considerably more expensive and bring down profit; buffalo meat was hard to source, and chicken too risky because of the chance of bacterial infection.

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Even though the Madras High Court's interim stay over the order has brought some relief, the officials at BBP are already struggling for alternatives that supply the same amount of protein as beef to the carnivores. In fact, the BBP officials have urged the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) to call for a meeting of directors of all zoos in the state to discuss the change in diet in case the ban comes in force.

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Dr Manjunath, a veterinarian attached with BBP, said: "We get beef for the park through a tender tigers, lions and other carnivores."

Animals at the park have a carefully planned diet recommended by veterinarians, said Suresh, Deputy Director of BBP. "If the ban is implemented, we may have to shift to buffalo meat. But it is impossible to source such huge quantity of buffalo meat every day. The only other option would be mutton, which is so expensive that we may end up spending a considerable part of our income on it. Now ZAK needs to decide what zoos must do," he said.

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The BBP officials had previously tried supplementing beef with chicken, especially among lions and tigers. But the chicken infected with salmonella bacteria had resulted in the deaths of several big cats a few years ago. This resulted in a blanket ban on chicken as feed for carnivores. Besides, the increased use of antibiotics in poultry has made treatment of carnivores harder as these drugs leave a residue. When the big cats consume this poultry, they become increasingly unresponsive to such drugs.

According to Dr Manjunath, each tiger (male) is fed 12 kg of beef every alternate day while the females are fed 8 to 10 kg of beef.