Mysore, May 2 (JP)-The Mysore Zoo received a pair of Indian Grey Wolves to add to its family of fauna. The pair of wolves (Canis pallipes) arrived from the Gadag mini Zoo at 5.30 am yesterday. The two had been rescued from the wild as two-month-old cubs in January 2009. The male and female are around one-and-half-years-old.

Meanwhile, when SOM contacted the Zoo authorities they were not clear whether this pair was from the same litter or not. But this does not seem to be the case as this pair has already had cubs none of which survived.

According to the Mysore Zoo authorities, the Zoo has a spacious enclosure along with a concealed den and other scrub which will create a natural environment for the wolves.

After a gap of more than 2 ½ decades, visitors to the Zoo will once again see the Indian Grey Wolf which is now an endangered species, according to the Red Book of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which pegs the entire wolf population in India at less than 1000 and Karnataka has less than 40 wolves in the wild.

Indian Grey Wolves have also been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Lack of prey and a decreasing natural habitat have made wolves child-lifters.

In Uttar Pradesh, 18,78,624 people were killed by wolves, and 14 others were killed in Bengal. During the same period, 285 people were killed in the Central Province in 1900. Between 1910-1915, 115 children were killed by wolves in Hazaribagh, Bihar, and 122 were killed in the same area in 1980-1986.

In Jaunpur, Pratapgarh and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, wolves killed 21 children and mauled 16 others from March 27, 1996 to July 1, 1996. Between April 1993 and April 1995, five wolf packs attacked 80 children, 20 of which were rescued in Hazaribagh West Koderma and Latehar Forest Divisions in Bihar.

In 1989, wolves in Pavagada area of Karnataka killed a dozen children. The dozen odd wolves in that pack were poisoned, shot and gassed to death.

Courtesy : Star Of Mysore