‘Winner winner chicken dinner’: Active and ferocious creatures turn lazy

Mysuru: The most active and ferocious creatures, Carnivores, have turned lazy and inactive now because of the recent change in their diet.

After all the zoos under the Karnataka Zoo Authority (KZA), including the famous Mysuru zoo, switched to chicken diet by January-end as the State Government had pushed beef ban through an ordinance, the animals have become less active and tend to relax for more hours than the usual long hours.

It is gathered that except for birds like vultures all other carnivores are showing lesser activity, including foxes and hyenas, which move about more than big cats, are showing lesser activity.

Before switching over chicken, the zoo used to procure 350 kg of beef a day to feed the carnivores, big cats would leave 3 kg of bones from an average of 14 kg fed to them, but when 8 kg of chicken is being given, they are leaving behind 2 kg of bones. With this, the zoo staff is worried about the effects of a prolonged diet of chicken on carnivores.

As per the new anti-cow slaughter law, buffalo meat is allowed, but it is not available in large enough quantities and as the country chicken price is on the higher side, the zoos are dependent on farm poultry.