YEREVAN ZOO MALE ELEPHANT MARRIED AT LAST
ARMENPRESS
Dec 04 2007
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS: The director of the Yerevan Zoo,
Sahak Abovian, told a news conference today that the male elephant,
Hrantik, is no longer a bachelor after a Russian circus allowed its
female elephant to travel to Armenia to marry him.
Armenian diplomats had been negotiating with authorities in India
and then in Sri Lank to get a wife for Hrantik, but the deal failed
due to vigorous protests of local nature protection groups.
The male elephant was brought to Yerevan in 1998 from Moscow’s Zoo
and since then it was leading ‘a bachelor’s life."
Hrantik has a big open-air-cage, a pool to splash in hot summers,
and its winter premises are heated by floor-built-in electrical
heaters. Mr. Abovian said the elephant even has its personal chef.
Hrant Vardanian, head of the Grand Holding company, paid $150,000
for the elephant and transportation expenses.
Mr. Vardanian said the female elephant stopped performing three years
ago and the circus was looking for a comfortable place for her to
settle down.
Sahak Abovian said also the Yerevan Zoo will undergo a major
reconstruction next year with new specious cages to be built for
felines and apes.
A natural gas system will be laid and many new trees will be
planted. He said the government has released $2 million for the
reconstruction.
The Yerevan Zoo was built 66 years ago and was one of the best zoos
in the former Soviet Union. Despite a chain of hardships experienced
in early 1990-s following the collapse of the former Soviet Union,
it has recovered in the last several years and has acquired several
animals. Overall it has 2,300 animals of 180 species. Around 60
percent of them are registered in the Red Book.
Mr. Abovian said zoos are very important in terms of preserving and
ensuing reproduction of some species which are nearing the edge of
extinction in wild life.
The Yerevan Zoo has one such specie-it is Przhevalsky horse. Armenian
bezoar (Capra aegagrus) and moufflon are being bred by the Zoo and
released.
Within the frameworks of cooperation with WWF the Zoo has exchanged
10 bezoar goats for deer in neighboring Georgia.
In 1994 the Yerevan Zoo joined the Eurasian Association of Zoos and
Aquariums. The Association coordinates exchange of animals among
zoos, information, new management experience and new animal treatment
methods. The Yerevan Zoo cooperates also with several zoos in Europe.
The government has earmarked 200 million Drams as a subsidy to the
Yerevan zoo for next year, up from 177 million this year. Mr. Sahakian
said this sum is enough to meet all demands.