Zoo keeper forges lasting bond with crane

 

This has become a daily routine for V.T. Cleetus, the ex-supervisor of the zoo, since he took on the sub- contract to carry out the infrastructure works of the children’s park.

 

“This cage haunts me, this was Manikutti’s cage, we used to play here,” said Cleetus, who was supervisor for 22 years,  recalling fond memories of Mani-kutti, a painted stork (a large wading bird from the stork family) that had nurtured a unique bond with him.  

 

“Maybe I managed her tantrums and later we struck up friendship,” said Cleetus, who remembers those good old days when Manikutti fished out a pen from his pocket and played with it, allowing the supervisor to sit inside the cage for long. The bird’s reaction when it spotted Cleetus in the zoo had even amazed other staff who could never tame her. But now for Cleetus, the cage is empty after Manikutti died three months back.

 

Cleetus tryst with animals began when he joined as a caretaker at the zoo in 1988. Cleetus had also worked in the zoo at King Khalid Military City in Saudi Arabia.

 

His knack in dealing with animals had also brought laurels to the zoo. Cleetus’s effort to make artificial mud caves inside the porcupine’s cage helped the zoo breed the animal, creating history in the zoo. Cleetus told DC, “Each animal can be tamed and brought under control but harassing them in narrow cage makes them furious.”