World Snake Day: Yellow anaconda gives birth to 11 snakes in Kolkata's Alipore Zoological Garden

In a piece of good news on World Snake Day, a yellow anaconda has given birth to 11 snakes inside the zoo enclosure in Kolkata's Alipore Zoological Garden. Speaking on this, Vinod Kumar Yadav, the chief of state zoo authority told Zee media that the newborns are being taken care of by the zookeepers and veterinary doctors every day. 

The zoo authority is hopeful that these snakes will add more attractions. They will also help Alipore Zoological Garden for exchange programs with other zoos in the country as well as some of the snakes will be shifted to other zoos in the state.

In June 2019, four anacondas, two male and two female were brought to Alipore Zoo from Madras Snake Park in exchange of four Monoclade cobras and four banded kraits. A naturalistic environment was created in the anaconda enclosure having water pool, rocks, swamp and vegetation which helped in the breeding of these species in the zoo.

Yellow anacondas give birth to live young and newborn anacondas are usually bigger than the babies of most of the snakes in the world. They are around one per cent of the body size of their mother and after giving birth the mother leaves the young ones and they are able to live and survive on their own.