KARACHI: Despite having a poor record in animal care and management, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has once again decided to procure more animals and that too from private contractors, it emerged on Friday.

Ironically, the yet-to-be-purchased animals, according to sources, also include native endangered species that enjoy a protected status across the country and cannot be traded commercially under the law.

According to a recently published advertisement, the KMC has invited tenders to purchase animals for Karachi zoo from interested contractors/suppliers as per provision of Rule 46 (1) of the Sindh Public Procurement Regularity Authority rules 2010 for the year 2014-2015.

The animals to be purchased are: white/golden/Siberian tigress, zebra and black/brown bear.

Although the advertisement lacks more details about the required animals, zoo sources told Dawn that the administration is looking for a native black or brown pair of bears, a female zebra that could be paired with the male of the same species currently living alone at the zoo and a tigress to mate with the male golden tabby tiger.

It is worth mentioning that KMC-run facilities for captive animals have often been criticised for poor conditions animals are forced to live in.

There is also extreme disapproval from experts on the KMC’s penchant for buying new animals but showing no interest in investing in animal care and management and staff training.

What’s perhaps more disturbing is that almost all the animal purchase deals that the KMC has made over the past few years with private contractors have not been without a controversy; be it the purchase of the four elephants from an African country, golden tabby tigers from a Lahore-based private party or white lions and Bengal tigers from Belgium that were purchased without the mandatory import permit.

So far, two big cats purchased within two years have died — golden tabby tigress and a young male Bengal tiger that were bought at an exorbitant price. The golden tabby tigress, the sources said, died within two weeks of its arrival in Karachi at Safari Park mainly due to poor handling. The pair of the golden tabby tigers the KMC had obtained in exchange for at least 65 of its animals reportedly had some defects.

The Bengal tiger, on the other hand, suffered from what the zoo officials described as an ‘unknown disease’ for four months before it died. The animal, once beautiful and agile, had turned so weak in its last days that it could hardly walk. But the zoo authorities continued to keep it on public display as its quarantine was under construction.

As a face-saving measure, the KMC has been instituting different inquiries into animal deaths, but the situation at government-run facilities for captive animals headed by officials that have no background in animal care remains as dismal as ever.

Criticising the KMC move, Dr Ejaz Ahmad, senior director at the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P), said that bears were legally protected and had been designated as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Mammals of Pakistan.

“The Karachi zoo should have contacted other zoos and opted for some exchange programme instead of purchasing the animals from the market that would likely mean buying it from an illegal source and at a high price. But, under a zoo exchange programme, they will get animals which are already raised in a zoo and are not from the wild. There are many zoo associations which are providing linkages,” he pointed out.

Citing some studies, he said that brown bears were native to the northern mountain ranges of Pakistan covering approximately 150,000 square kilometres. Their populations were declining and they had gone extinct in some areas over half a century. They were now distributed over three major mountain ranges (Himalaya, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush).

“The black bears are found in northern Pakistan, including Kohistan, Diamer and Mansehra. One species of black bear (Baloshistan black bear) is considered as endemic to Pakistan and is found in the Phub Range of Balochistan. Only few animals of this species are left now in the wild.”

The few studies done on these species, he said, were limited to a certain area, for instance the Deosai National Park. One of the major threats to bear population, according to Dr Ahmed, was poaching of cub for dog fighting.

Seconding his opinion, director biodiversity of WWF-P Uzma Khan said that purchasing a protected species would have huge legal implications as animal source was often unknown.

“To attach a price tag to an endangered species is counter-productive to the conservation cause. Such an ad would promote capturing of animals from the wild. In recent years, black bears have bred in Islamabad and Lahore zoos but there are no private breeding centres for bear in the country,” she said.

On big cat’s purchase, she said that the government had lifted a ban on its import, besides different species of big cats were locally available as they were being privately raised in captivity.

“The move (of the KMC) to seek white or Siberian tigress as a mate for golden tabby tiger is not right from the conservation point of view. A good zoo practice is to raise a pure breed and not a hybrid one,” she said.

Senior director, Culture, Sports and Recreation at KMC Rehan Khan said that he was not aware of the sensitivities attached to native black/brown bear and the government would take care of all concerns while purchasing an animal.

“All relevant documents would be checked at the time of animal purchase. Besides, efforts are under way to sign a memorandum of understanding with Singapore zoo so that our staff could benefit from their expertise,” he said in reply to a question.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014