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Toby Ninan retired from Delhi Zoo about two years back. With his varied experiences with the wild animals in the zoo, he is the right person
to direct your queries to. Hear what Ninan has to say about his life and chosen career! |
I had always (before this incident) wanted to know about he minimum space through which a leopard could escape as this was something which was a sort of a night mare which I had always dreaded. Mind you the time was before tranquilizers
came into the arsenal of the Zoo.
Well I learnt it the hard way as I did most of my difficult lessons in wild life management.
My old father with the help of a cousin sister had arranged my marriage and finally I brought my bride home. No sooner had I brought her across the threshold of the house, the door bell was ringing stridently which as all zoo people
know spells trouble. This time it was trouble spelt with capital letters.
The black panther which was confined to the hospital and in the squeeze cage had escaped and was roaming around the big hall which served as a hospital ward. Luckily one side of the entrance to the hall had a set of double doors and
the other exit had a single door. All these were closed so the animal could not escape into the outdoors and become a real menace. The hall had ventilators about four on each side and high up where no animal could climb up to.
There were not very many options and with a fervent prayer in my heart, the carpenter, myself and other staff got to work. The side which had double doors and a space in between was our hope for getting the animal out. There was
one set of doors which opened - he other set of doors which were of also of wood had to have an opening cut out in such a way that only when we wanted would the opening be seen, till then it would just be four thin saw cuts in all four sides of this opening
–ie.two vertical and two horizontal- the traveling crate was put flush against this opening and after a final push the opening was visible- till this time the four cuts that formed the incipient opening just held on by mere slivers of wood.
Now that the up-slide was in position and the opening in the door was with out any impediment. We could also shoo the panther into the crate but how! This is where a bright idea ie. Diwali crackers came into the picture. We had about
eight men clamber up to the ventilators on either side of the outer side of the hall and throw lighted crackers into this ward of the hospital. Again to our good fortune there were no other patient in this hall –it would have been disastrous if there were
some excitable deer or birds there,who in turn would have committed suicide by crashing into the sides of their crates in the face of this barrage of bursting crackers! To shorten a long story –about four hours later the panther could not stand this onslaught
of noise and rushed into the traveling crate and was safely shut in it.
The wound for which the panther was hospitalized had any way nearly healed and we decided to continue dressings in its enclosure.
We could finally go in to the hall and inspect the squeeze cage and to our dismay we found one of the bars had broken of from the bottom and was bent to one side leaving a gap of 8” through which the animal had escaped. Thus I had the
answer to my question! How the bar broke or was bent is a mystery which was never solved .!