Reema Adopts Baby Gazelles

Well this is the first time I am hearing such news about one of our celebrities that involves animals and animal care. Till now we heard mostly of the peacocks and tigers related to Sharif family or saw a few fake pictures of Musharraf with his little dogs.In fact, I read in his very unimpressive book about his dogs that he didn't think having a small breed as your pet dog would make one less macho or masculine. And others I have seen are mostly breed conscious people who just aim to impress others around them. Mostly the animals have better personalities than the owners.

Anyway, this is a bit different. Reema - our Pakistani actress who is now the Zoo Ambassador recently visited the Lahore Zoo and fell in love with two baby gazelles (Indian Gazelle fawns) and decided to adopt them immediately. According to the adoption programme offered by the Lahore Zoo, anyone can adopt an animal they are interested in and are then responsible for its upbringing. You have to pay annually and the animal's entire responsibility and expenses is on the person who has adopted the animal. 

Reema was never associated with animal care before but said she always loved animals but could never do anything practically to help them. Well her good spirits are positively taken. I am glad I read about it because if one listens to Reema - she would say the same thing in at least 30 minutes. She loves to talk endlessly. I think the  Lahore Zoo is much better than Karachi's Zoo and hopefully they would take better care of the animals than our zoo here and the money raised through this programme would be honestly used on the animals only.

Four lions imported 'illegally' to Karachi

A Pakistani exotic animal dealer is battling to recover four lions which were impounded in Karachi Zoo after he had them flown in from South Africa.

Wildlife officials said it was illegal to import big cats and that the buyer, Irfan Ahmed, did not have valid import papers. He denies this.

The lions arrived in Karachi on Wednesday after being flown from Johannesburg to Frankfurt in November.

Zoos have often imported lions to Pakistan, where the cats are extinct.

Fahmida Firdous, chief conservation officer at Sindh province's Wildlife Department, told the BBC that Mr Ahmed's import permit had expired in June 2008.

"It has not been renewed since then. Besides, there has been a ban on the import of large wild cats since October 2008."

But Mr Ahmed, owner of Osaka Traders, which imports and exports animals and birds, told the BBC: "If I did not have the required documents, how could I fly these animals from South Africa to Germany and then to Pakistan?"

The dealer, who has previously imported elephants for Karachi Zoo, said he had not yet found a buyer for the big cats.

The BBC's Riaz Sohail in Karachi says there are several privately owned mini-zoos in Karachi, which might be interested in buying the animals.

Karachi Zoo already has an Asiatic lion, a subspecies thought to survive only in western India.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12074775

Remembering Mumtaz :P

Since yesterday Nadzy and I have been talking about that Mumtaz we saw in the Karachi Zoo. I don't know how many people recall that thing and most of the people I know have no interest in zoos or animals as it is so I never get to know if they would know about Mumtaz.

Anyway, a short recap is that since ages, Karachi Zoo used to have this one main attraction for visitors called "Mumtaz Mahal" or "Mumtaz Begum" and some people also called it the "Fox Lady". The organizers used loudspeakers to gain attention of the visitors to also see Mumtaz. People had to buy an extra ticket to see her.

I remember, Nadira, Umar and I saw that ugly, weird thing. I couldn't find its picture on the net to share. The zoo claimed that it was a supernatural thing caught in Africa and has been alive since 35 years. It had the body of fox and face of a lady. And it used to have such a heavy make up and used to talk to people.

I got so scared of Mumtaz the first time I saw him. For a week I was shit scared of him.

It was a hoax. It was some eunuch I guess. Hideous and scary.

Wonder if it's still there in the zoo :P I do feel like visiting the zoo though. But looking at these pictures I don't think it would be that great. Would definitely want to see Mumtaz again hehehe