Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, November 30:
Guess who got the most precious gift this Ningol Chakouba�.
the state government-run zoological garden at Iroishemba.
A Brow Antlered Deer (Sangai) doe, fondly referred as Rani by its handlers, gave birth to a beautiful, quivering bundle of joy, on this day.
Two weeks after, the fawn is still extremely excitable and would jumpstart to a full, startled gallop at the slightest unfamiliar sound.
That is why, its keepers, two casual workers (names withheld on request), are uneasy about allowing anybody to approach the Sangai pen.
�The little one is quite capable of running into a tree and hurting itself badly,� one of them said.
�We still do not know if it is a male or a female.
We will find that out after it is at least five week old and safer to approach,� he added.
The IFP took the hint and kept the distance.
We sighted the fawn, but could not manage to get it on film from the distance with the limited zoom lens of our digital camera.
But no regrets.
The fawn is more precious than our photograph.
We are only happy that such a beautiful and rare life is amongst us now.
The Sangai, an elegant species of swamp deer, is a very rare and endangered species of deer.
Apart from a hundred and odd at its only natural habitat at Keibul Lamjao, and another 100 or so at different zoos all over the world, it does not occur anywhere else in the world.
The timid and excitable deer also very rarely breeds in captivity, which is another reason why Rani�s Ningol Chakouba gift is all the more precious.
The Iroishemba Zoo has today 10 Sangais in its possession.
Rani is the only doe among these.
Of her two earlier fawns, one did not live to be adult.
�It died when it ran into a tree when startled by some picnickers trying to photograph it,� said one of its caretakers without elaborating.
We did not insist to know more.