Three zebras arrive at Keralam’s Thiruvananthapuram zoo from Gujarat

Onam is turning out to be golden for the Thiruvananthapuram city zoo. A day after two seven-month-old lion cubs made their public debut, much to the delight of visitors, not just two but three zebras reached the facility early Thursday morning (August 20, 2026) from Gujarat.

This marks the return of zebras to the zoo after nearly a decade. The zebras, one male and two female, were brought from the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (Vantara) at Jamnagar in Gujarat by road in an animal ambulance. A zoo team, including superintendent T.V. Anil Kumar, met up with the team from Vantara at Parassala and brought over the animals under police escort to reach the zoo around 5.15 a.m.

Though the initial plan was to bring a pair of zebras aged five and three, the zoo decided at the last-minute to ask for an additional female zebra. Explaining the rationale, zoo veterinary surgeon Nikesh Kiran said a sustainable herd population was two males for three females. This would ensure genetic diversity naturally. Planned breeding was also an option. But for that at least a couple of female zebras were needed. If the zoo were to limit itself to a male and a female, once the parents were past the age of having young ones, the population would go down. The city zoo once had 22 zebras, and it did not want to be left without a single zebra for a decade again, Dr. Kiran said.

The second female to be brought over belonged to a separate herd. That could be a reason for the minor injuries it sustained during transporation, unlike the other two zebras. It is younger than the other two at 2.5 years of age, he said.

Since the three zebras were not used to the presence of human beings, they were very nervous initially, but had soon settled down in the old giraffe enclosure they were shifted to temporarily as their own enclosure gets ready.

Risky time

However, their open quarantine period is not without risks since the stress of transportation manifests during this time. The zebras could develop pasteurellosis infection or capture myopathy owing to the stress experienced during the two-and-a-half-day journey here. A close eye was being kept on them for this reason.

Injections were given for the wounds sustained before releasing the zebras into the enclosure. Some medicines would also be mixed into the water given to them. In Gujarat, they were being fed a particular type of dried grass called Timothy grass hay. The team from Gujarat brought over stock for a week, but in the meanwhile the zebras would have to be acclimatised to locally available hay (they do not need green grass). Salt licks will be hung in the enclosure for the animals to get their mineral intake, and supplements and microflora to improve gut health would be given, Dr. Kiran said.

Zoo director P.S. Manjula Devi said the zoo had been trying to add animals such as zebras and giraffe to its collection for many years but that could not materialise. Once she took over as director, earnest efforts were made to get the zebras from various facilities since only animal exchange was an option, not purchase. With Vantara, they hit the mark. In return, the city zoo is giving away a king cobra and a lion-tailed macaque to Vantara.