Chittagong zoo to get two tigers

After lying empty for four years, the tiger enclosure at the Chittagong Zoo will be home to two new big cats.

The two Royal Bengal tigers are expected to fly in from South Africa to the Dhaka airport on Thursday. They will then transported by road to the Chittagong Zoo, says its Deputy Curator Manjur Morshed.

Three tigers have been exhibited at the Chittagong Zoo thus far. 'Vim' passed away on Nov 3, 2006, at the age of 23. ‘Chandra’ passed away on Jul 11, 2007 at the age of 10. His companion 'Purnima' died of cancer on Oct 30, 2012. The tiger enclosure has been empty ever since.

Chittagong Zoo authorities attempted to procure tigers from the Dhaka Zoo and Dulahajra Safari Park, but received no response. They decided to purchase by paying out of their pocket for a pair from abroad.

Deputy Curator Morshed told bdnews24.com that the zoo bought the tigers from the South Africa-based Falcon Traders on Sep 19 for Tk 3.3 million.

The flight carrying the tigers left Pretoria around 12:30am Bangladesh time on Thursday and arrived at Qatar's Doha Airport around 7:45am.

The flight from Doha left around 1:30pm on Thursday and is expected to reach Dhaka around 7pm.

The tigers will be released into the enclosure on Friday, in the presence of the Chairman of the Zoo’s Board of Directors and Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Shamsul Arefin, said the deputy curator.