From CK Nayak
NEWDELHI: Wild animals and birds all over the world are coming out to human locality that too in capitals and even metropolis during the total lockdown period because of the COVID-19, but a pair of pandas started something which they hardly do and never in public. Mating!
In their enclosure, with no visitors and not much else to do, a pair of pandas in Hong Kong zoo finally started the essential routine of life. The couple-Ying Ying and Le Le- have started mating since coronavirus-caused lockdowns shut off the flow of guests to the zoo.
In Noida adjacent to New Delhi, a nilgai, the largest of antelopes, was found strolling in aimlessly across a once very busy mall. In Dehradoon Sambar, deer were spotted walking on the streets, while, an endangered Indian civet was seen crossing the road in Kerala’s Kozhikode.
Olive Ridley Turtles came ashore a beach in Odisha after a long time though not entirely related to the lockdown and a bison passed through a marketplace in Karnataka. Peacocks have started dancing on the streets in Mumbai, and a leopard reached close to an Air Force base near Patna while a bear made it to the MTNL office in Gangtok.
Not only in our country, from the US to France, Italy to Japan, Poland to England, have animals truly come out of the wild. In neighbouring Nepal a Rhino chased a man on the streets as if to force isolation during the pandemic.
But the case of panda couple is different from others since they breed only once in a year with long gestation period of six to eleven months. Since Ying Ying and Le Le’s arrival in Hong Kong in 2007 and attempts at natural mating since 2010, they unfortunately have yet to succeed until this year upon years of trial and learning. The park officials released photos of the pair embracing in an enclosure uncharacteristically free from prying eyes and clicking camera phones. They are elated since the species hardly mate and never do it in public unlike other animals.
But instead of learning a lesson it is ironic that to fight a virus that came from the animals, humans are looking for a vaccine again with the help of animals.
The Chinese government has prescribed using ‘Tan Re Quing’ – an injection containing bear’s bile – for the treatment of COVID-19.
Significantly, the animals being spotted on the streets or neighbourhood are not running around aggressively, damaging public property or causing serious harm to anyone. But once the lockdown is over and roads become busy it might witness human-animal conflict.