Even though I work to improve my country's image internationally as much as I can, I firmly believe Islamabad zoo, and any other zoo in Pakistan that isn't run directly by a province's wildlife department for that matter, should be shut down. Islamabad zoo was never meant to house anything bigger than wolves and on top of that it has untrained staff. A major problem in Pakistan is that bureaucrats have a lot of influence and it is often because of this why establishments like Islamabad zoo are in the state that they are in, furthermore most zoo staff come from a forestry and agricultural background and have very basic if any knowledge at all when it comes to handling animals. Personally I don't think there is a need for a zoo in Islamabad anyways as Margalla NP, located just behind the zoo, can provide much better recreational and educational facilities to the public, which is severely in need of the latter. If anyone has any questions related to zoos in Pakistan feel free to contact me
Sad ( bad ) news from the zoo : Dozens Of Animals, Birds Die In Islamabad Zoo Due To Negligence Of Officials - UrduPoint
Strongly believe Marghozar zoo should be shut down. People in charge run it like a business and obviously have no regard for animal welfare. I've seen limping muntjacs, stress pacing wolves, a completely healthy bear lose it's sanity in an enclosure not big enough for even smaller carnivore species and everything in between in this place. And the worst part is they deny everything, saying they're doing the "best they can". I remember they started a volunteer helper group a while back but refused to do anything that they advised and shut it down. And this isn't even limited to just the zoo, CDA also operates a roadside enclosure along one of Islamabad's major roads housing a herd of blackbuck. A wolf broke into this enclosure and killed at least 5 antelopes. Worst part is there's barely any awareness regarding this in the lower-middle class, which makes up the majority of zoo visitors (or a general idea of animal welfare for that regard). Hopefully the new zoo being constructed outside Islamabad proves to be better but unless it's operated directly by a wildlife department and the enclosures not designed by engineering firms that specialize in industrial infrastructure there's hardly a chance for these animals getting a better life.
Kaavan the Asian elephant will be freed!!! He has been alone since his mate died in 2012, and thanks to a petition made some years ago by Cher, he will be sent to a sanctuary in Sri Lanka. Cher sheds tears of joy as Pakistan's loneliest elephant wins freedom
Seems like a Pyrrhic victory to me! This addressed only the plight of one individual and high profile animal and not in the least begins to achieve any real change on the ground to create a better zoo. How on Earth did it come to this: a judge orders a zoo (Pakistan) to find a place in a sanctuary in consultation with a foreign government (Sri Lanka) within a month? I would like to see that verdict by the judge and its stipulations first. No offence, but it is a public secret that management of zoos in the Subcontinent is strewn in mind boggling bureaucracy and consequent inertia and lacklustre municipal or State/Govt. engagement. BTW: is Messrs. Cher & Co. going to provide any financial support and/or in-kind for a transfer and support care at any "new" location? If not, that is the second downer and no-brainer on the entire episode. What surprises me the most is that this overlooks the urgency of setting baseline criteria for changing the set up of the facility into a added value conservation breeding zoo with capable and committed management and trained keeper husbandry staff while also addressing the (lack of) policy directives and financial support from the Municipality for proper upkeep, trained staff and management of the zoo.
Again sad news from the zoo : Pakistan probes deaths of lions, ostriches in Islamabad zoo and : Pakistan: Two lions of Islamabad Zoo die in transfer tragedy
A lot of animals went 'missing'. ( among them a lot of common pigeons.... -seem to taste good ) : Around 500 animals go ‘missing’ from Islamabad zoo | The Express Tribune
To interpret the journal piece correctly one would have to have an annual report on acquisitions, transfers, births and deaths. Where this becomes of conservation interest I have highlighted the "changes": Between the first report (Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation) in July 2019 and the handover to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board in May 2020 the numbers changed 2019 / 2020 / change note Chinkara gazelle: 7 / 3 / decrease -4 (excluding births?) Blackbuck: 4 / 3 (excluding births?) Nilgai: 18 / 16 / decrease -2 (excluding births?) Urial: 11 / 4 / decrease -7 (excluding births?) Barking deer: 3 / 5 / increase +2 (births?) Hog deer: 7 / 10 / increase +3 (births?) BTW: ignored common zebra as deemed not that relevant. Only for significance of decrease in animal total numbers (as I considered both species in ridiculous numbers kept in the first place at the "zoo" and they have no conservation value whatsoever)! Mallard: 108 / 74 / decrease -34 Rose-ringed parakeet: 136 / 30 / decrease -106 It seems with regards to hoof stock the previous zoo has a case to answer for! With regard to the birds one wonders if they actually started managing numbers or that some catastrophic event led to the significant animal decreases). I also do wonder if they did maintain records on events and a vet record (given the above probably some, but in what fashion and manner of professionalism was the collection maintained)?
Rescueing the remaining animals of the Zoo : Breaking News: FOUR PAWS supports rescue of over 30 zoo animals in Pakistan
More animals will be moved to other places like the Wolves which will move to Jordan : Wolves at Islamabad zoo to be flown abroad | SAMAA
Cannot say I am happy that a pair of Indian wolves will be shipped ex situ long distance to a zoo across a great zoogeographical divide and a different species of wolf in the country. Another reservation is about the quality of the facility where it is being sent to in Jordan. It seems more authorities washing their hands clean off something they where the primarily responsible for overseeing the good operation of a zoo. What should have happened is to provide adequate capacity, training and funding for its operation, not to close the place. What have authorities or general public learnt from this: absolutely nothing.
last I checked the wolves were sent to another facility not too far from Islamabad and were to remain there.
Sorry, we misunderstood the post. It just infuriates me that some media make the wildest claims on developments that never will be. This is a phenomenon more frequent in the Deccan Shield Subcontinent where there is a cultured bureaucracy and top down decision-making process often announce events that may or may not happen in the future. F.i. Delhi Zoo is awaiting an exchange deal with Patna Zoo for a male rhino (which will be related to the one he is supposed to mate with at Delhi Zoo ...) will be transferred to Delhi and a female rhino will be sent to Patna from Delhi. This whole deal has been "in the making" for the last 5-6 years, and it has not happened yet. Now, why you would need a court order to have animals transferred or exchanged from a zoo to another place in Pakistan is quite beyond me. It seems the local authorities and the zoo management are both incompetent to deal with actual issues on the ground. Very convenient that the zoo gets closed, the animals get shipped off - did they ever have a choice or did authorities look for fit locations from both husbandry and animal welfare perspective - and everyone can forget about and is allowed to where authorities, the zoo management, the general public and wider community failed to build and operate a proper zoo.
It got so melodramatic ..., that President Imran Khan thanked Cher for helping the elephant be transferred. Now, IK is quite the wealthy man ..., what unnerves me is that Pakistani authorities have failed their zoos, failed their wildlife department where there has been no need to do so. By taking the elephant and a few other animals of the (former) Islamabad Zoo, the Municipality and Central Govt. have been saved an embarrassment or 20. The authorities have been let of far too lightly, no sentences have been handed down to officials. In effect, both the Municipality, zoo senior management as well as Government, national officials responsible for wildlife management in situ and ex situ should have been in the dock for gross negligence, dereliction of duty and failure to provide adequate care to zoo animals and providing adequate funding, housing, capacity training and baseline animal care for the Islamabad Zoo. I do find the whole affair an indictment on the state of affairs with zoo and wildlife conservation in Pakistan ex situ. BTW: whether or not this particular facility would be closed or not, it has not in any significant way helped endangered species like Indian rhino, Bengal tiger, blackbuck, Indian wolf, khur, snow leopard, bharal, various other wild sheep get restored, recover nor protected adequately in country.
I agree with most of what you say, just to inform further, there was a 5 year public campaign which initially set out to improve conditions at the zoo. When this proved unlikely because of endless local government procrastination the campaign became one that urged relocation of Kaavan the elephant, not to another zoo but in a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia who offered a place for Kaavan. When the Justice first stated a return to Sri Lanka, his thinking was that the elephant was gifted from Sri Lanka. You can hear why Justice Minallah came to his final judgement here from Lawyer Owais Awanand the Attorney Owais Awan in conversation with the Nonhuman Rights Project In the end 2 Himalayan brown bears were also relocated to a sanctuary in Jordan. There are ongoing actions by Pakistan’s public to either close down bad zoos or improve them, the case of Kaavan and the 2 bears set legal precedent which it is hoped will begin the actions to seriously improve the lives of captive wild animals. There is another public campaign to fundmentally improve conditions for animals at Karachi Zoo where a 17 year old African female elephant died in April 2023 after horrific illness all widely reported on social media. Her independent necropsy paid for by Four Paws International showed multiple reasons for her death. There is no intention in Pakistan’s zoos as far as I can see, to breed animals endangered in the wild for release back to their native habitats
Himalayan brown bears are an endangered species. To transfer them out to a sanctuary in Jordan with even less specialised husbandry experience and out of range - as the region used to have - now extinct - Syrian brown bears is hardly a good transfer location for these bears. Quite poignant has been her passing soon on arrival and given her prior health condition that transfer should never have happened on animal health, welfare and animal husbandry considerations. If ever, these Himalayan brown bears should have been sent to a range state like Nepal, Jammu Kashmir, Sikkim Darjeeling instead (not some arid desert country in the Middle East). In the case of the Sri Lankan elephant that should have been send back to Sri Lanka and not any other country (for it being a breeding loan). Now, you have send this elephant to a location where it has admixed a totally different gene pool of wild local elephants. Please read up on reintroduction criteria and guidelines. It is beyond the pale that a nation like Pakistan cannot legislate proper zoo management laws, create homegrown standards for zoo management and animal husbandry as well as a legal framework for zoos to be accredited with sufficiënt governmental or municipal funding for their operation. Next door, at least, the Indian Central Zoo Authority can do just that and much much more. Finally, PAWS or any of these organisations primarily focussen upon animal welfare are hardly the best advisors nor agents in ensuring good husbandry expertise, good knowledge of zoo animal management and what ex situ animal and conservation management looks like and are very much vesten into this peculiar anti zoo / conservation dogma morality that certainly does not help an inch in moving forward or with a long term vision on conserving our biodiversity.
You are sadly ill informed on a number of issues yet you make such very assertive comments. They certainly did have specialist care in Jordan! The bears had lived a tortuous life at Islamabad zoo, and before that used as dancing bears, they certainly were in no fit state to survive another zoo. The bear sanctuary in Pakistan could not or would not accept them. Where would a suitable facility been found for them in the home ranges you state? Where they are kept now is not arid as you presume it is hilly and green and the best that could be found for bears in their condition. The point was - it was urgent to save their lives and give them a better one.Strawberries and swims: rescued dancing bears settle down in northern Jordan The female, very sick with an un healed infected surgical wound following surgery by the zoo vet. cancerous growth was removed but she had an ineffective recovery regime. Four Paws Int Vet team includes a surgeon from Leipzig Zoo who immediately operated and cleaned her wounds again at the Islamabad zoo, she did, in fact, spend time recuperating in the now empty lion enclosure and after some weeks transferred to About Us The Al’Mawa Organisation Jordan for confiscated and sick animals to their medical centre for care and rehabilitation, before going to species specific enclosures. The sanctuary is co-managed by Four Paws and the Princess Alia Foundation. The female had a few months of the best care she ever had, her feet touched grass, she ate an appropriate diet, (geared to a bear whose teeth had been pulled out as a dancing bear) she had water to cool off and play in. The tumour returned and the Vets were sadly unable to save her a second time. It was nothing to do with a lack of appropriate medical care or husbandry. The male bear is still alive, 3 years on, and appears well, see him The male elephant, a diplomatic gift from Sri Lanka, was not relocated to Cambodia on a breeding loan (!) he will be there until he dies, hopefully peacefully of old age. Yes the genetic difference between a Sri Lankan elephant and Thai elephants is well known and there is absolutely no intention of breeding from him. Two former logging female elephants are there, and they are separated by elephant fencing. The females roam and forage in the woodlands and grasslands all day and walk past Kaavan’s 17 acre day enclosure and his 16 acre night time enclosure. He lives as close to a perfect Asian elephant life as a wild captured elephant in captivity can, though minus breeding. All the animals needs are being met, veterinary and husbandry and before jumping to conclusions about skills lacking in an animal welfare organisation or a wild animal sanctuary run by responsible bodies mentioned, may I suggest you do some research?
