Taipei City Zoo said yesterday it plans to add more female koalas to its collection despite the recent deaths of two of the marsupials — Ligi, who passed away last month, and Eva, who also died on Wednesday.
The new females would hopefully help jump-start the zoo’s koala breeding project, it said.
After the deaths of Eva and Ligi, the zoo now has five koalas, but only one of them, Pearl, is female. The zoo was happy to report that all five koalas had been given a clean bill of health.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIPEI ZOO
The koala breeding project began back in 1999. To date, only two joeys have survived — two male koalas called Q-bi and Q-di.
A manager at the zoo said the first two koalas, Harley and Patrick, were an instant hit with visitors when they were introduced. The duo immediately won the affection of the Taiwanese public with their trademark bashful, but lethargic, expressions and were esteemed as symbols of animal conservation, the zoo said.
Harvey, whose favorite activities were sleeping and stuffing his face with food, had to be put down in November 2004 after a large tumor was discovered.
Another koala called Action, so called because of his abundant energy, died in 2002 because of a malignant tumor in his thyroid.
Zoo spokesman Ching Shih-hsien (金仕嫌) said that Ligi and Patrick gave birth to Q-bi in 2003 and Q-di in 2005, but unfortunately Ligi did not get pregnant again before she passed away last month.
Eva, he said, gave birth to a joey back in 2002 with Action, but it died seven months later when Eva accidentally crushed him to death.
Eva died of cancer on Wednesday.
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