Hyderabad: A lot has been said about techies suffering due to night shifts. Imagine the plight of nocturnal animals and birds having to perform “day duty” all their lives. Animals held in modern zoos have their diets monitored and enclosures are built in such a way that it resembles their natural habitat.
However, some things will just not be the same and one of them is the sleeping pattern of nocturnal animals.
Nocturnal animals who sleep during the day and are wide awake in the night cannot follow the same biological clock in zoos. Nocturnal centres in zoos artificially reverse the day and night for these animals and birds, using lighting systems so that they are awake during the day for visitors.
“Nocturnal animals like bats, owls, jungle cats and others are mostly captive bred. Even otherwise, our nocturnal centre reverses their biorhythm,”said Dr Abdul Hakim, veterinarian at Nehru Zoological Park, when asked about the animals.
We try to keep a lot of bushes in their cages so that they can hide behind them and sleep as they do in the forests, he adds
It has been 30 years since the Nehru Zoological Park began the nocturnal centre. “The animals adapt quite quickly. However they initially face difficulties such as drowsiness and even their eating habits are affected. “But just as humans who work at odd hours, their bodies eventually adapt to the surroundings and no case of disease or sickness has been reported from the nocturnal centre,” said Mr Shankaran, a retired forest official. Animals are also expected to have a certain intake of Vitamin D which could be affected by being cooped up in the nocturnal centres.
“We occasionally take these animals out in the sunlight,” said Dr Hakim at the Hyderabad zoo.
“Owls and some other nocturnal birds will not get enough of Vitamin D because of their feathers even in sunlight so we tend to include it in their diet,” said Dr Ameer Hamza, a veterinarian.
From an ethical point of view, nocturnal centres have been questioned by animal rights organisations. Ms Reethi Marella of People for Animals said, “Nocturnal animals are people shy. Subjecting them to captivity and reversing their biological clock for visitors is wrong. No matter how much these centres try to replicate their natural habitat, it will not be the same.”
