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Colombo Zoo
National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka (also called Dehiwala Zoo or Colombo Zoo) is a zoo, zoological garden in Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka, founded in 1936. It is home to various birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians. The zoo not only exhibits animals from Sri Lanka, but also from across Asia and other parts of the globe. As of 2005, the zoo has 3,000 animals and 350 species. The annual revenue is Sri Lankan rupee, LKR 40 million. The Dehiwala Zoo exchanges its residents with other zoological gardens for breeding purposes. In June 2021, a lion named Thor which had been living in the zoo since 2012 reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. History of dehiwala zoo Sri Lanka has a history of collecting and keeping wild animals as pets by both Sri Lankan kings as well as by European colonisers. What is known today as the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka was founded by John Hagenbeck in the late 1920s. During John Hagenbeck's ownership of the zoos the ...
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Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia
Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia (; ), population 245,974 (2012), is a large municipality in Sri Lanka, covering . It lies south of the Colombo Municipal Council area and is separated from it by the Dehiwala canal which forms the northern boundary of DMMC. Its southern limits lie in Borupana Road and the eastern boundary is Weras Ganga with its canal system and it includes some areas to its east (Pepiliyana, Gangodawila and Kohuwala). This town has experienced extensive population growth and rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in recent years. It is home to Sri Lanka's National Zoological Gardens, which remains one of Asia's largest. Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila and Colombo Airport, Ratmalana are some important landmarks in this area. Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia and Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte being two large suburban centres of the city of Colombo function together as one large urban agglomeration in the Region ( Western Province). The overspill from the City in residentia ...
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Asian Water Monitor
The Asian water monitor (''Varanus salvator'') is a large Varanidae, varanid lizard native to South Asia, South and Southeast Asia. It is widely considered to be the List of largest extant lizards, second-largest lizard species, after the Komodo dragon. It is distributed from eastern and northeastern India and Bangladesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, through southern China and Hainan Island in the east to mainland Southeast Asia and the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Lombok, the Riau Archipelago, and Sulawesi. It is one of the most widespread monitor lizards. The Asian water monitor has a natural affinity towards water, inhabiting the surroundings of lakes, rivers, ponds, swamps and various Riparian zone, riparian habitats, including Sewerage, sewers, city parks, and urban waterways. It is an excellent swimmer and hunts fish, frogs, invertebrates, water birds, and other types of aquatic and amphibious prey. Due to its apparently large, stable population, it is ...
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Habitat Conservation
Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology. History of the conservation movement For much of human history, ''nature'' was seen as a resource that could be controlled by the government and used for personal and economic gain. The idea was that plants only existed to feed animals and animals only existed to feed humans. The value of land was limited only to the resources it provided such as fertile soil, timber, and minerals. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, social views started to change and conservation principles were first practically applied to the forests of British India. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: 1) human activities damage the environment, 2) there was a civic duty to maintain the enviro ...
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Aubrey Weinman
Major Aubrey Neil Weinman, OBE CMZS (1897–10 August 1967) was a Ceylonese soldier, civil servant and naturalist. He was the first Director of the Colombo Zoological Gardens (1947-1962). Early life Weinman was born in Colombo, the son of William Algernon Weinman (1869-1922), a stationmaster, and Caroline Maud née Reimers (1872-1961). He attended school at the Royal College, Colombo, where he was a sergeant in the Cadet Corps. Following the outbreak of World War I, he traveled to England in April 1918 to join the British Army. In November he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Indian Army, of the 9th Bhopal Infantry. He saw action on the western front and was wounded in battle. After the war he remained in the reserves. Career He joined the government service and was appointed the second Superintendent of the Colombo Zoological Gardens after it was established in 1939, following the liquidation of Zoological Garden Company in 1936. During his service, new progra ...
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Ceylon
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. It shares a maritime border with the Maldives in the southwest and India in the northwest. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, while the largest city, Colombo, is the administrative and judicial capital which is the nation's political, financial and cultural centre. Kandy is the second-largest urban area and also the capital of the last native kingdom of Sri Lanka. The most spoken language Sinhala language, Sinhala, is spoken by the majority of the population (approximately 17 million). Tamil language, Tamil is also spoken by approximately five million people, making it the second most-spoken language in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a population of appr ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ...
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Human Zoo
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were a colonial practice of publicly displaying people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays often emphasized the supposed inferiority of the exhibits' culture, and implied the superiority of "Western society", through tropes that depicted marginalized groups as "savage". They then developed into independent displays emphasizing the exhibits' inferiority to western culture and providing further justification for their subjugation. Such displays featured in multiple colonial exhibitions and at temporary exhibitions in animal zoos. Etymology The term "human zoo" was not generally used by contemporaries of the shows, and was popularised by the French researcher Pascal Blanchard. The term has been criticised for denying the agency of the shows' non-European performers. Circuses and freak shows The abstract concept of human disp ...
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Bonnet Macaque
The bonnet macaque (''Macaca radiata''), also known as zati,Chambers English Dictionary is a species of macaque endemism, endemic to southern India. Its distribution is limited by the Indian Ocean on three sides and the Godavari River, Godavari and Tapti Rivers, along with its related competitor the rhesus macaque in the north. Land use changes in the last few decades have resulted in changes in its distribution boundaries with the rhesus macaque, raising concern for its status in the wild. The bonnet macaque is diurnality, diurnal, arboreal, and terrestrial. Males have a head-body length of with a tail while females are with a tail. Males weigh and females . It can live up to 35 years in captivity. The bonnet macaque feeds on fruits, nuts, seeds, flowers, invertebrates, and cereals. In southern India, this macaque exists as commensal to humans, feeding on food given by humans and raiding crops and houses. Taxonomy Two subspecies of bonnet macaques have been identified: ...
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Rhesus Macaque
The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or grey in colour, it is in length with a tail and weighs . It is native to South Asia, South, Central Asia, Central, and Southeast Asia and has the widest geographic range of all non-human primates, occupying a great diversity of altitudes and habitats. The rhesus macaque is diurnality, diurnal, arboreal, and terrestrial. It is mostly herbivorous, feeding mainly on fruit, but also eating seeds, roots, buds, Bark (botany), bark, and cereals. Rhesus macaques living in cities also eat human food and trash. They are gregarious, with troops comprising 20–200 individuals. The social groups are matrilineal. Individuals communicate with a variety of facial expressions, vocalisations, body postures, and gestures. As a result of the rhesus macaq ...
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Malayan Tapir
The Malayan tapir (''Tapirus indicus''), also called Asian tapir, Asiatic tapir, oriental tapir, Indian tapir, piebald tapir, or black-and-white tapir, is the only living tapir species outside of the Americas. It is native to Southeast Asia from the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra. It has been listed as Endangered species, Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2008, as the population is estimated to comprise fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Taxonomy The scientific name ''Tapirus indicus'' was proposed by Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest in 1819 who referred to a tapir described by Pierre-Médard Diard. ''Tapirus indicus brevetianus'' was coined by a Dutch zoologist in 1926 who described a black Malayan tapir from Sumatra that had been sent to Rotterdam Zoo in the early 1920s. Phylogenetics, Phylogenetic analyses of 13 Malayan tapirs showed that the species is monophyletic. It was placed in the genus ''Acrocodia'' by Colin Groves and Peter Grubb (zoologist), Peter Grubb in 2011. However, ...
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Malayan Tiger
The Malayan tiger is a tiger from a specific population of the '' Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies that is native to Peninsular Malaysia. This population inhabits the southern and central parts of the Malay Peninsula, and has been classified as critically endangered. , the population was estimated at 80–120 mature individuals, with a continuing downward trend. In the Malay language, the tiger is called ''harimau'', also abbreviated to ''rimau''. It has also been known as the southern Indochinese tiger, to further distinguish it from the Indochinese tiger population to the north in Myanmar and Thailand, which differ genetically from this population. Taxonomy ''Felis tigris'' was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the tiger. ''Panthera tigris corbetti'' was proposed by Vratislav Mazák in 1968 for the tiger subspecies in Southeast Asia. ''Panthera tigris jacksoni'' was proposed in 2004 as a subspecies as a genetic analysis indicated differences in mtDNA ...
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Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies and the nominate tiger subspecies. It ranks among the largest wild cats alive today. It is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late Pleistocene for about 12,000 to 16,500 years. Its historical range covered the Indus River valley until the early 19th century, almost all of India, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and southwestern China. Today, it inhabits India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and southwestern China. It is threatened by poaching, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. As of 2022, the Bengal tiger population was estimated at 3,167–3,682 individuals in India, 316–355 individuals in Nepal, 131 individuals in Bhutan and around 114 individuals in Bangladesh. Taxonomy ''Felis tigris'' was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the tiger. It was subordinated to the genus ''Panthera'' by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1929. Bengal is the traditional ...
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