Great White Pelican

In the first half Mysore Zoo trip we had visited mammals of the zoo. In the second part let us concentrate on birds. Mysore Zoo holds distinction of having India’s biggest ‘Walk Through Aviary’. There are two parts to this aviary. One is at Mysore zoo and the other at nearby Karanji lake, which is also part of the zoo. Karanji Lake aviary is planned after the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore. It may not match the size and scale of the Jurong Park, but the aviary is attractive and as of now holds all the pheasants & a pair of Sarus Cranes.

Walk through aviary is tricky place to photograph. You are going into the bird’s cage through a path, birds will be all around you flying. Even though it is one the largest Indian aviary I found the place is too congested for taking good photos. The space they gave for mammals did not exist inside that aviary. So I had to select those species which were large and were sitting farther away from the outer wire fence to avoid cluttered background. Unfortunately I could not get any interesting facts about these individual birds unlike mammals earlier. So I added some salient facts about each species in their description.

Great White Pelicans

The Great White Pelican,(Pelecanus onocrotalus) also known as the Eastern White Pelican or White Pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and in Africa in swamps and shallow lakes.

Great White Pelican Preening

Great White Pelicans are large birds with mass of 10 kg, 1.6 meter long and with a 2.8 meter wingspan. It differs from the Dalmatian Pelican, the only larger species of pelican, by its pure white, rather than greyish-white, plumage, a bare pink facial patch around the eye and pinkish legs.

Great White Pelican Preening

Males are larger than females, and have a long beak that grows in a downwards arc, as opposed to the shorter, straighter beak of the female. Immature birds are grey and have dark flight feathers. In flight, it is an elegant soaring bird, with the head held close to and aligned with the body by a downward bend in the neck. In breeding condition the male has pinkish skin on is face and the female has orangery skin.

Great White Pelican Preening

Today, because of overfishing in certain areas, White Pelicans are forced to fly long distances to find food. Great white pelicans are exploited for many reasons. Their pouch is used to make tobacco bags, Their skin is turned into leather, the guano is used as fertilizer, and the fat of young pelicans is converted into oils for traditional medicine in China and India. Human disturbance, loss of foraging habitat and breeding sites, and pollution are all contributing to the decline of the Great White Pelican. The Great White Pelican is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Sarus Crane

The Sarus Crane (Grus antigone) is a large non-migratory crane found in parts of the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m (5.9 ft). The Sarus Crane is easily distinguished from other cranes in the region by the overall grey color and the contrasting red head and upper neck. They forage on marshes and shallow wetlands for roots, tubers, insects, crustaceans and small vertebrate prey. Like other cranes, they form long-lasting pair-bonds and maintain territories within which they perform territorial and courtship displays that include loud trumpeting, leaps and dance-like movements. In India they are considered symbols of marital fidelity, believed to mate for life and pine the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death.

The species is venerated in India and legend has it that the poet Valmiki cursed a hunter for killing a Sarus Crane and was then inspired to write the epic Ramayana. The species was a close contender to the Indian Peafowl as the national bird of India. Being ubiquitous in the flood plains of the Ganges, observations on their biology had been made by the Mughal emperor, Jahangir around AD 1607. He noted, for instance, that the species always laid two eggs with an interval of 48 hours between them and that the incubation period was 34 days.

The Sarus Crane is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Once the Sarus was a common sight; in the 19th century, more than 100.000 birds soared over the northern plains. Since then, the numbers have been falling drastically, and today there are less than 10.000 birds left in India.

Muscovy Duck

The Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata) is a large duck which is native to Mexico and Central and South America. Muscovy Ducks had been domesticated by various Native American cultures in the Americas even before Columbus arrived. The first few were brought to Europe by the European explorers at least by the 16th century. They are widely traded as “Barbary duck” for the table. Muscovy breeds are popular because they have stronger-tasting meat – sometimes compared to roasted beef – than the usual domestic ducks which are descendants of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Muscovy ducks are also less noisy, and sometimes marketed as a “quackless” duck; even though they are not completely silent, they don’t actually quack (except in cases of extreme stress).

Mute Swan

The Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name ‘mute’ derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. Measuring 125 to 170 centimeters in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange bill bordered with black. It is recognizable by its pronounced knob atop the bill. The phrase swan song refers to this swan and to the legend that it is utterly silent until the last moment of its life, and then sings one achingly beautiful song just before dying.

Black Swan

The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black Swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes.

The Roman satirist Juvenal wrote in 82 AD of rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno (‘a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan’). He meant something whose rarity would compare with that of a black swan, or in other words, as a black swan did not exist, neither did the supposed characteristics of the ‘rare bird’ with which it was being compared. The phrase passed into several European languages as a popular proverb, including English, in which the first four words (a rare bird in the land) are often used ironically. For some 1500 years the black swan existed in the European imagination as a metaphor for that which could not exist.

The Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh made the first European record of sighting a black swan in 1697 when he sailed into, and named, the Swan River on the western coast of New Holland. The sighting was significant in Europe, where “all swans are white” had long been used as a standard example of a well-known truth. In 1726 two birds were captured near Dirk Hartog Island, 850 kilometres north of the Swan River, and taken to Batavia (now Jakarta) as proof of their existence.

Black-crowned Night Heron

The Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) commonly abbreviated to just Night Heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions and Australasia (where replaced by the closely related Rufous Night Heron, with which it has hybridized in the area of contact). The breeding habitat is fresh and salt-water wetlands throughout much of the world. These birds stand still at the water’s edge and wait to ambush prey, mainly at night or early morning. They primarily eat small fish, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic insects, small mammals and small birds. During the day they rest in trees or bushes.

Silver Pheasant

The Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera) is a species of pheasant found in forests, mainly in mountains, of mainland Southeast Asia, and eastern and southern China. The male is black and white, while the female is mainly brown. Both sexes have a bare red face and red legs. It is common in aviaries, and overall also remains common in the wild. Some of its subspecies (notably whiteheadi from Hainan, engelbachi from southern Laos, and annamensis from southern Vietnam) are rare and threatened. This specimen at the Mysore Zoo seems to be Jones’ Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera jonesi)

Red jungle fowl

The Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) lives in thick secondary forest. In the morning or evening, the bird can be found in open areas or clearings. The red jungle fowl is native to Southern and Southeastern Asia. There are three other Gallus species, the green jungle fowl (Gallus varius), the grey jungle fowl (Gallus sonneratii) and the Ceylon or Lafayette’s jungle fowl (Gallus lafayettei). The red jungle fowl is considered the progenitor of the modern chicken breeds used today in commercial agriculture. The exact time and place of domestication are unclear, and this may have occurred more than once during human history. It’s believed that the modern chicken derives from birds kept by the people of the Harappan culture (2500-2100 B.C.), primarily for fighting purposes.

Red jungle fowl

A sign of pure wild genotypes for Red jungle fowl is for males, an eclipse plumage. This eclipse plumage has been seen only in populations in the western and central of the species’ geographic range. It is believed that pure Red jungle fowl has disappeared from extreme south-eastern Asia and the Philippines. An eclipse plumage in male consist of a black long feather across the middle of his back and slender red-orange plumes on the rest of his body. It appears during breeding season. For a female, an eclipse plumage cannot be distinguished, but she does moult.

Peacock Courtship Display

The Indian Peafowl or Blue Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large and brightly colored bird of the pheasant family native to South Asia, but introduced and semi-feral in many other parts of the world. It is the national bird of India.

Peacock Courtship Display

The male, known as a peacock, is a large bird with a size, color and shape of crest make them unmistakable within their native distribution range. The peacock is metallic blue on the crown, the feathers of the head being short and curled. The fan-shaped crest on the head is made of feathers with bare black shafts and tipped with blush-green webbing. A white stripe above the eye and a crescent shaped white patch below the eye are formed by bare white skin. The sides of the head have iridescent greenish blue feathers. The back has scaly bronze-green feathers with black and copper markings. The scapular and the wings are buff and barred in black, the primaries are chestnut and the secondaries are black. The tail is dark brown and the “train” is made up by elongated upper tail coverts (more than 200 feathers, the actual tail has only 20 feathers) and nearly all of these feathers end with an elaborate eye-spot. A few of the outer feathers lack the spot and end in a crescent shaped black tip. The underside is dark glossy green shading into blackish under the tail. The thighs are buff colored. The male has a spur on the leg above the hind toe.

Peacock Courtship Display

The ornate train is believed to be the result of female sexual selection as males raise the feathers into a fan and quiver them as part of courtship display. Many studies have suggested that the quality of train is an honest signal of the condition of males and that peahens select males on the basis of their plumage. More recent studies however, suggest that other cues may be involved in mate selection by peahens.

Peacock Courtship Display

The males display in courtship by raising the upper-tail coverts into an arched fan. The wings are held half open and drooped and it periodically vibrates the long feathers producing a ruffling sound. The cock faces the hen initially and struts and prances around and sometimes turns around to display the tail. Males may also freeze over food to invite a female in a form of courtship feeding. Males may display even in the absence of females. When a male is displaying, females do not appear to show any interest and usually continue their foraging.

Peacock Courtship Display

The colors of the peacock and the contrast with the much duller peahen were a puzzle to early thinkers. Charles Darwin wrote to Asa Gray that the “sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail , whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!” as he failed to see an adaptive advantage for the extravagant tail which seemed only to be an encumbrance. Darwin tried to develop a second principle of “sexual selection” to resolve the problem. American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer tried to show, from his own imagination, the value of the eye spots in camouflage in a 1907 painting.

Indian Peafowl

It was only in the 1970s that this apparent contradiction was resolved based on the evolution of honest signalling and the handicap principle of Amotz Zahavi. The tail of a peacock makes the peacock more vulnerable to predators, and is therefore a handicap. But the message that the tail carries to the potential mate peahen is ‘I have survived in spite of this huge tail, hence I am fitter and more attractive than others’. It is like modern bodybuilding with steroids, where bodybuilders are willing to knowingly forfeit general health to high risk of injury and the immunosuppressant qualities of excess androgens, risk impotence, and grow to sizes that are inconvenient and impractical in the modern world, in exchange for the appearance of supreme physical health and reproductive fitness.

Chimpanzee at Mysore Zoo

After Kokkrebellur trip we went back to Mysore. We had our breakfast at nearby McDonald’s outlet on the Bangalore Mysore Highway. It was a contrast from earthly Kokkrebellur to McDonald’s outlet. I did not find anything tasty or interesting other than nice Rio movie memorabilia toys which my daughter liked very much.

Research from the University of Warwick shows a trip to the zoo can boost your child’s science and conservation education more than books or classroom teaching alone. I’m always conflicted when I go to a zoo seeing animals piled up in small enclosures like slaves. It breaks my heart but at the same time, I can’t deny the education those zoos give us, especially children. They create an awareness of how precious, diversified and beautiful life is and we need to take care of it. So our next destination was Mysore zoo. I had taken lot of pictures at the zoo as I had whole day ahead of me there. I present few of them here and the rest in the second part.

Male Asiatic Lion at Mysore Zoo

Mysore Zoo (also known as Chamarajendra Zoological Garden) was started in 1892 by Chamaraja Wodeyar X, then the king of Mysore. Initially as a private Zoo, and was named as Khas-Bangle. It was also called as Thamasha Bangle. The Zoo which has now spread over an area of 250 acres was initially meant for the exclusive visit of the royal family but public entry started as early as 1920. It is located inside the city unlike many other Zoos in India. The Zoo has around 165 species on display with 1,320 animals and birds. It is also credited with achieving considerable break-through in captive breeding of many animals.

Gorilla at Mysore Zoo

Zoo photography is a great opportunity to photograph animals that we would probably never see otherwise so close in the wild. Before going to the zoo look at a map of the grounds and prioritize which animals you’d like to shoot. Then learn about animal behaviors and sleep patterns as well as scanning through images for more inspiration. Some zoos might also have no-flash or no-tripod policies in certain areas.

The best light is either early in the morning or a few hours before sunset so try to photograph your favorite animals during that time. Keep the indoor shots for mid-day when the sun is high in the sky. If you are lucky to have an cloudy overcast day then enjoy shooting all day without any worries. Take note of special events, like feedings when you can catch some great shots if you plan ahead for those events.

Indian Elephant at Mysore Zoo in B&W

I went to Mysore zoo with my trusty Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM on Canon EOS 7D. I had Canon EF 1.4x III Extenderinitially on that lens. But realized that I needed to go wider to get better view some times. Canon EOS 7D was with crop factor 1.6x yielded a widest view of 112mm on my 70-200mm lens. With 1.4x Extender that become 156mm. So I removed 1.4x Extender and kept back in the pocket. You need a telephoto lens to get in really close and also to remove unwanted backgrounds. It also create nice, soft bokeh. Most zoos will also have a creepy crawly enclosure with reptiles, spiders and butterflies. This is when a fast macro lens comes in handy. I say fast because some of those displays are in darker areas so being able to shoot at f2.8 is almost a necessity. Make sure you keep your lens hood on your camera. Not only will it protect your lens from crowds or fences, it might also prevent sun flares. You don’t always have a choice of where you can shoot and you might have the sun as a back light. Consider bringing a flash. I personally didn’t use flash on most animals since I knew it bothers them and in some cases might even harm them. But I will use it with butterflies or exotic flowers.

Zebra at Mysore Zoo in B&W

It might not always be that easy to think about composition at a zoo but taking a few minutes to survey the animal’s surroundings can make a difference. Observe the animal’s surroundings and see where would be the best spot to add the best habitat so that the animal looks like its in the wild. Get in as close as you can to eliminate background distractions. Think in terms of taking a portrait of a human being. Look for their good side, facial expressions, the right light to flatter their features. Make sure you focus on the eyes. Try getting at eye level with your subject. This will bring a sense of presence and intimacy with your subject. Try unusual and strange angles.

Shooting through fences is most likely unavoidable. To avoid it get as close to the fence as possible to get the least amount of fence in the shot and to have it as far away from your subject relative to your lens. Use your telephoto lens and zoom all the way in. Set your aperture to its widest setting (smallest number) to get shallow depth of field.

Indian Elephant at Mysore Zoo

The bad thing about glass enclosure is that it reflects all light hitting it so you get glare. The trick here it to simply change you angle of view until most or all glare disappears. If you’re using flash, you’ll really have to be at an angle. You need to use off camera flash holding it in one hand at an angle.

“Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.” said, Evan Esar, a very popular American humorist. So don’t miss out on the human who watch these animals. Antiques of the humans sometimes exceeds that of the monkeys inside the enclosure. I was so annoyed by several tourists who had gathered at the zoo trying to harass the gorilla or asking the tiger to roar. Trying photograph in the midst of all the chaos and rush is itself an experience.

Giraffe at Mysore Zoo

As you enter Mysore zoo you will be greeted by three majestic giraffes. This zoo had remarkable success in breading giraffes. One of the Giraffe there called Krishnaraja was born at the same zoo in 1996. Recent entry into this giraffe enclosure from Lucknow zoo was a female giraffe called Kushi who mated with Krishnaraja and had a female calf recently.

Giraffe at Mysore Zoo

The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. The giraffe is related to other even-toed ungulates, such as deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting of only the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi, and their extinct relatives. Its range extends from Chad in Central Africa to South Africa. Giraffes usually inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. However, when food is scarce they will venture into areas with denser vegetation.

Giraffe at Mysore Zoo

The giraffe’s fur may serve as a chemical defense, and is full of antibiotics and parasite repellents that gives the animal a characteristic scent. Old males are sometimes nicknamed “stink bulls”. There are at least eleven main aromatic chemicals in the fur, although indole and 3-methylindole are responsible for most of their smell. Because the males have a stronger odor than the females, it is also suspected that it has a sexual function. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which averages 4.6 hours per 24 hours. Male giraffes are up to 5.5 metres (18 ft) tall at the horn tips, and weigh between 800 and 1,930 kilograms (1,800 and 4,300 lb). Females are between 4 and 4.5 metres (13 and 14.8 ft) tall and weigh between 550 and 1,180 kilograms (1,200 and 2,600 lb). The coat is made up of brown blotches or patches separated by lighter hair. Each giraffe has a unique coat pattern.

A giraffe’s heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain.In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. The jugular veins also contain several (most commonly seven) valves to minimize blood flowing back into the head and assist it getting to the inferior vena cava and right atrium in the same situation. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extra-vascular pressure in the same way as a pilot’s g-suit.

Hairless Chimpanzee at Mysore Zoo

Other males may worry that losing their hair will make them less appealing. But for Guru the chimpanzee, his baldness has turned him into a star attraction. The 22-year-old chimp is suffering from a skin condition called alopecia universalis and has lost the hair from all over his body. But the mischievous chimp still brings hundreds of visitors flocking to Mysore Zoo despite greeting them by throwing stones. He beats his chest, and claps a lot when children come near his enclosure.

Guru had lost his hair before being rescued from a circus and moved to Vandalur Zoo in Chennai. He lived there for almost a decade, but was transferred to Mysore Zoo seven years ago so that specialist vets could monitor his condition. However, with chimpanzees being so much like humans, factors in Guru’s life such a stress or trauma, which can induce alopecia in humans. Vets at zoo have tried a number of medicines on him, but to date there have been no positive results, and as a last resort they are planning to consult a human skin doctor.

Fortunately, Guru’s baldness doesn’t seem to have affected his popularity among his own species. To stop him getting lonely, zoo officials have allowed a female chimpanzee, Manila, to move into his enclosure. But although Guru plays cheerfully with her, he hasn’t taken things any further – to the surprise of his handlers. He got separated from his parents at a tender age and most probably this could be a reason that he hasn’t learned to mate.

There are three male chimpanzees in the Mysore zoo, Mason, 19, Vali, 15 and Guru, 22. There are also two female chimpanzees Manilla, 18, and Ganga, 42. They are kept in separate enclosures to prevent possiblities of getting into fights. With all the tricks in their trade to rouse the primeval instincts of the three male chimps mate with the two females in zoo having failed miserably so far, the staff are planning to procure some animal sex movies, of chimps mating, hoping to rouse the resident chimps enough for them have a go at the females in the enclosure.

Gorilla at Mysore Zoo

Mysore zoo holds a rare record, that of being the only zoo in the whole country to host a Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). But, lady luck has eluded zoo authorities when it comes to breeding gorillas in captivity. The whole country raised its eyebrows when a pair of gorillas were transported to the zoo, way back in 1976.The pair of gorillas named, Sugreeva and Sumathi were at one point, the star attractions of the Mysore zoo. People enjoyed the pranks of the gorillas for hours on end. The zoo authorities built a special enclosure for the pair with the fond hope of their breeding.

Unfortunately, Sugreeva, the male gorilla died within one year. Since then, Sumathi lived solitarily for more than 16 years. The zoo authorities corresponded with the authorities of the world’s leading zoos, seeking a male gorilla. In 1992, Bobo, a male gorilla, was brought to the zoo from Tel Aviv in Israel. However, Bobo became diabetic and its forehand was amputated because of gangrene. Subsequently, it died.

Gorilla at Mysore Zoo

After four years of correspondence, the zoo received Polo, a 1972-born male gorilla as a gift from the Dublin zoo. Breeding was not meant to be and Sumathi who had aged considerably died in October 2001 following a cardiac arrest. Now, Polo has been living a solitary life for over seven years. Meanwhile, a female gorilla was caught in the wild by Kolmardan Zoo but it died before it could be transported to Mysore.

According to IUCN Red List (2008), Gorilla taxa are considered critically endangered. Its population reduction of more than 80% over three generations. The listing is based on exceptionally high levels of hunting and disease-induced mortality (over 90% in some large remote areas, including the second largest protected population at Minkébé), which combined are estimated to have caused its abundance to decline by more than 60% alone over the last 20 to 25 years. Most protected areas have serious poaching problems and almost half of the habitat under protected status has been hard hit by Ebola. Commercial hunting and Ebola induced mortality are both continuing (even accelerating), threats that are not readily mitigated. If the current Ebola epizootic continues at the same rate and trajectory, then the decline in Western Gorilla abundance in all protected areas is projected to be on the order of 45% for the 20-year period spanning 1992 to 2011 (not accounting for other threat factors such as hunting). Furthermore, gorilla reproductive rates are extremely low (maximum intrinsic rate of increase about 3%). Therefore, even an immediate cessation of Ebola mortality and a drastic reduction in the rate of hunting (neither of which seem likely) would not result in rapid population recovery. Rather, under the most optimistic scenarios, population recovery would require on the order of 75 years.

Zebra at Mysore Zoo

The plains zebra (Equus quagga), also known as the common zebra or Burchell’s zebra, is the most common and geographically widespread species of zebra.It ranges from the south of Ethiopia through East Africa to as far south as Angola and eastern South Africa. The plains zebra remains common in game reserves, but is threatened by human activities such as hunting for its meat and hide, as well as competition with livestock and encroachment by farming on much of its habitat.

Zebra at Mysore Zoo

They are boldly striped in black and white, and no two individuals look exactly alike. They also have black or dark muzzles. The natal coat of a foal is brown and white. All have vertical stripes on the forepart of the body, which tend towards the horizontal on the hindquarters. An experiment was done at the Knoxville Zoo where a zebra was shaved. The underlying skin was black, not the previously thought white. There have been various mutations of the zebra’s pelage from mostly white to mostly black. Rare albino zebras have been recorded in the forests of Mount Kenya.

White Rhinoceros at Mysore Zoo

The 32-year-old female African white rhinoceros Hidimba died recently at the zoo after it got stuck in the moat of the open enclosure when its male counterpart Bheema attacked it from the back. It had sustained intestinal injuries. Now Bheema the male rhino is alone in that enclosure.

White Rhinoceros at Mysore Zoo

The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist and is one of the few megafaunal species left. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The White Rhino consists of two subspecies: the Southern White Rhino, with an estimated 17,480 wild-living animals at the end of 2007 (IUCN 2008), and the much rarer Northern White Rhino. The northern subspecies may have eight remaining worldwide — all in captivity.

Asiatic Lions at Mysore Zoo

A pair of Asiatic lions arrived at the Mysore zoo from the Sakkarbaug Zoo in Gujarat few weeks back. The zoo will be displaying the pure-breeds after a gap of 21 years. The zoo had Asiatic lions in 1989, but they could not breed and did not survive. Asiatic lions are a highly endangered species, surviving only in the Gir forests of Gujarat. Asiatic lions were smaller in size than their African counterparts, attaining sexual maturity between the ages of two-and-a-half to 3 years. The gestation period was 95 to 105 days. The life expectancy of the lions was about 15 to 20 years, and approximately 350 remained in the wild.

Asiatic Lions at Mysore Zoo

The lions have arrived here under the animal exchange program. The Mysore zoo has given three gaurs, a pair of marmosets, three Lady Amherst’s pheasants, a pair of Khaleej pheasants, a pair of Malabar giant squirrels and a pair of green pheasants under the program. In exchange, the Sakkarbaug Zoo has given the lion pair, a pair of white spoonbills, five ring-necked pheasants, three comb ducks, five Alexandrian parakeets and a pair of blossom-headed parakeets.

Asiatic Lions at Mysore Zoo

I was fortunate to witness the amorous display and mating of the lion pair when I was there. Female was reluctantly sitting next to the male. Lion started caressing lioness and licking her allover. Once she was cooperative he started mounting her. Outside the Sakkarbaug Zoo, no other center is able to breed Asiatic lions. So if Mysore zoo achieves breeding it will be great achievement.

Mating Asiatic Lions

Spot-billed Duck

After Somanathpura visit I came back to Mysore city. Had lunch and visited Natural history Museum. Close to the museum was the lake which was teeming with birds. This was Karanji Kere. The lake has boating facility and a nice a walk along one side. The walkway around the lake was very nice for photographing birds. I had only taken my Canon EOS 7D fitted with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM + Canon EF 1.4x III Extender. While my daughter jumped into the boat, I went around searching for birds.

Spot-billed Pelican

There were plenty of birds. Few were nesting and raising their chicks along the trees in the middle of the lake. Light was also pretty nice for the photography. Even though I clicked over 500 photos. Due to lack of space I present you 20 from that evening.

Spot-billed Pelican

Karanji Kere is a lake located in the city of Mysore in the state of Karnataka, India. The lake is surrounded by a nature park consisting of a butterfly park and a walk-through aviary. There is also a museum, the Regional Museum of Natural History which is located on the banks of this lake. The total area of Karanji Kere is about 55 hectares. Karanji Kere is owned by the Mysore Zoo Authority. Mysore Zoo gets a revenue of an average of Rs. 50000 per day from ticket sales to enthusiasts who visit this lake.

Common Moorhen

Karanji Kere was one of the favorite haunts of birds like herons and egrets. The Karanji Kere island was bereft of vegetation or butterflies till Jun 2004 as the inflow of sewage from Siddharthanagar and polluted water from the Mysore Milk Dairy had rendered the lake unfit for any form of aquatic life. This pollution led to the destruction of aquatic life in the lake and with the food-source getting depleted, the migratory birds started to avoid the lake.

Painted Stork Landing

In order to prevent the destruction of this lake and to renovate it, help was sought from the Asian Development Bank , Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation and Zoo Authority of Karnataka. The first step undertaken was to stop the sewage from entering the lake. Other restoration activities included removal of polluted silt, de-weeding of the entire lake surface, removing 30 cm of silt from the lake, restoration of feeder channels, construction of a jetty to start boating facility, and the construction of a bridge to the newly created ‘butterfly park’. A watch tower was also constructed to view the birds and study their behavior. A giant fountain which can spew water up to 40 feet has been recently added as an attraction. A nursery of medicinal plants is also present here.

Spot-billed Pelican

Some of the common migratory birds found here are Grey Pelican, Painted Stork, Ibis, Cormorant, Egret, etc. which nest on trees in the islands present in the lake. Recent survey of birds have indicated 87 species and 12 of them are migratory birds. Herons, Asian open bill storks, Egrets, Red wattle lapwing, Sandpipers, Rose ringed parakeet, Black Drongo, Brown Shrike, Red-whiskered bulbul, Booted warbler, Sunbird and Greenish Warbler are some of the other species of birds found here.

Spot-billed Duck

It is also a place for young romantic couple to snatch few quiet moments from the hustle bustle of the city. I could see plenty of such couples hiding in the nooks and corners and frolicking around without caring the beautiful avian species around. My difficulty in photographing the birds was not because of the terrain or light but because of these pairs. I had to be careful to avoid embarrassing these couple while taking the photographs .

Spot-billed Duck

Still not everything is hunky dory with Karanji Kere. Sewage is still flowing into the lake. There were lot of floating plastic swimming along with sewage debris. The birds are getting their fish for the time being. If the pollution in flow continues the lake will go back to its past. As the George Santayana said in The Life of Reason – “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

Spot-billed Duck

Spot-billed Duck

Spot-billed Pelican

Spot-billed Pelican

Grey Heron

Spot-billed Pelican in Flight

Spot-billed Pelican in Flight

Pelican with fish in its throat pouch

3 pelicans

2 pelicans

2 pelicans

Spot-billed Pelican Taking off