ISKANDAR PUTERI: Some 23 baby animals, including a female tiger cub, have been born at the Johor Zoo within the last five years, says Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor.
The state housing and local government committee chairman added that the young animals came from six different species at the zoo, the oldest in Malaysia.
“Since 2018 until now, Johor Zoo has received additional newborn animals including a female tiger cub, two sun bears, eight spotted deer, 10 sambar deer, two tapir and two porcupines.
“This proves that the Johor Zoo always cares for and (looks after) the welfare of its animals,” he added.
Mohd Jafni was replying to Liow Cai Tung (PH-Johor Jaya), who asked about the zoo’s current and upgrade status during the state assembly meeting at Bangunan Sultan Ismail in Kota Iskandar on Tuesday (June 21).
He added that operating hours of the Johor Zoo were temporarily suspended from Oct 18, 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and upgrading works were on the plans.
“Based on discussions with the parties that participated in a working visit on June 12, and taking into account the proposed development projects that can be implemented in the short and medium term, the time required for this will be about a year,” he said.
When met outside the august house, Mohd Jafni said the government was looking at having building a new zoo near here.
“We have identified a 20.2ha plot of land somewhere in Iskandar Puteri, which is not far from a residential area. The land size is ideal for us to build a new zoo.
“This is still in the early planning stages as we need a big allocation to build a new zoo,” he said.
If the project is approved, some of the animals from the Johor Zoo would be relocated to the new zoo.
Jafni added that the Johor Zoo would remain at the same location with some animals kept on the premises.
“We will also be studying the Singapore Zoo, Melaka Zoo, Taiping Zoo and other zoos that have large crowds and try to implement it in the new zoo here,” he said.