Moscow Zoo this year will give Kyiv Zoo 12 blue sheep, 5-6 humpless camels, as well as a pair of wolverines, Kyiv Zoo director Oleksandr Tolstoukhov has said. In his words, negotiations with the Russians are also being held on the birds.
At the same time, he noted that instead the Kyiv zoo is ready to give an owl. “They [the Moscow Zoo - ed.] want an owl. We have six owls, so when they decide what sex of the bird they want, we will give it to them,” Tolstoukhov said.
The director of the zoo said that over the past six months 50 animals have died at the Kyiv zoo, in particular, five mammals, including the African lion, 15 birds, 30 fish, amphibians and reptiles.
The cause of death of animals were both chronic diseases and age, Tolstoukhov said. “This is a normal situation given that over 60% of the collection of Kyiv Zoo exceeded their biological age,” he stressed.
Tolstoukhov also reported that “many criminal cases have been filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office, SBU, Interior Ministry against the previous leadership of the zoo.
However, he found it difficult to tell whether the case had been filed against ex-director of the zoo Svitlana Berzina.
Earlier the Kyiv zoo reported the death of 36 animals denying the statements made by the director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreiko about the disappearance and deaths from October 15, 2010 to February 28, 2011, already under new leadership, of about 500 animals.
