Veterinary Unit looks after the conservation and breeding aspect of the animals of Lahore Zoo. Zoo houses nearly 40 % indigenous species and 60% exotic species and is more inclined towards the conservation of locally endangered and threatened species.
Programs
Following are some of the breeding programs of Lahore Zoo.
Black Buck
- The antelope had been native to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh while in late 1970s, introduced in Argentina and the United States.
- Blackbucks are extinct from Bangladesh and Pakistan, while in the latter, they are found only in zoo, wildlife parks and national parks. The species is placed in Second Schedule of Punjab Wildlife Act, which required certificate of lawful possession.
- Lahore Zoo is housing this locally extinct species. We display this species and bred them here to heighten people’s awareness of their plight and beauty.
- The surplus of the species is sent to other wildlife parks and zoos to maintain their population in ex-situ facility.
- Our long-term aim is to breed this species and establish large colonies for conservation awareness.
Black Bear
- The Asiatic black bear occupies a narrow band from southeastern Iran through Afghanistan and Pakistan, across the foothills of the Himalayas, to Myanmar. It occupies all countries in mainland Southeast Asia except Malaysia and has a patchy distribution in southern China.
- The species is listed as Vulnerable under CITES Red list and is threatened due to Illegal hunting for body parts, specifically the gall bladder, paws and skin, together with habitat loss caused by logging, expansion of human settlements and roads.
- The species has been housed for the purpose of conservation and are breeding well at Lahore Zoo. In the recent past, a pair has been shifted to Safari Zoo Lahore and Bahawalpur Zoo so maintain captive population.
Common Leopard
- In Pakistan, it occurs in different forest types ranging from Himalayan forests (up to 5,200 m) to arid mountains and Acacia scrub forests, important areas of the distribution are from Margalla Hills National Park, Murree Reserve Forest, Ayubia National Park (KP) and adjoining forest of Khyber-Paktunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and there are also occasional reports from desert areas of Punjab which largely show a vagrant animal.
- The common leopard - Panthera pardus, has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.
- Lahore Zoo rescued one male Leopard from the area of Saidpur Khanna in 2009 and another male leopard from the area of Shakargarh, bordering Sialkot and Narowal, in 2014.
- Two Common Leopard females were purchased to complete the pairing for the conservation purpose.
- One of the pair bred twice but unfortunately both times, the leopard cub couldn’t survive after three months.
- Presently Zoo has house a pair on the Hill Section and another in Cat Section and taking measures for the breeding of the endangered species.
African Lion
- African lions are listed as Vulnerable in IUCN Red List and the population is decreasing in the wild.
- Lahore Zoo have a good breeding stock of African Lions. Only in 2016-2018, 18 cubs have been born to the African Lion.
- Due to space constraint, we are not able to house all, so surplus lions have been sent to different facilities including Peshawar Zoo, Bahawalpur Zoo, Kamalia Wildlife Park.
- Peafowls
- Asiatic species of peafowl include blue or Indian peafowl originally of the Indian subcontinent, and the green peafowl of Southeast Asia.
- Lahore Zoo houses the two species along with Spaulding including, black shoulder, pied, white peafowl. Peafowl captive breeding is one of the main amongst all Zoos and Wildlife Parks of Punjab.
- Incubation and brooding facility has also been enhanced to achieve maximum. Every breeding season yields 300-400 chicks of peafowl.
- Surplus are sold out to the wildlife lovers.