By Ifham Nizam
The National Zoological Gardens in Dehiwela will today display the new tenants, a pair of Red Giant Kangaroos and a female Californian Sea Lion along with some males who are already here.
Zoo Director General Bhashwara Senanka Gunaratne told The Island yesterday that the animals were obtained under an animal exchange programme with the Nagoya Higasima Zoo in Japan.
In return, the Zoo would be sending a pair of civet cats, one male Otter and a male Fishing Cat by the end of this month to Japan, he said.
According Dehiwela Zoo officials, they were without any Kangaroos for sometime as the last animals had died years back. However, there were two male Californian Sea Lions for some time.
Zoo Education Officer Nihal Senarath de Silva said that Red Kangaroo (Macropus Rufus) was a very large animal with short, red-brown fur, fading to a pale buff near the limbs.
"It has long, pointed earlobes and a squared-off muzzle. Females are smaller than males and are blue-grey with a brown tinge, although females from arid zones are coloured more like males," he added.
Its legs work much like a rubber band. The male can clear nearly 9.4 metres in one leap. He grows up to 1.8 m tall and weighs up to 85 kg. Females grow up to 1.1 m tall and weigh up to 35 kg. Tails of both males and females can be up to 1 m long.
The California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) is a coastal sea lion of western North America, it is quite intelligent and can adapt to man-made environments easily.
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