Adopt an animal or bird in Mysuru zoo for a day, month or year Premium

The animal adoption scheme, which was first launched at the Mysuru Zoo more than two decades ago, became a hugely popular scheme, encouraging other zoos in the State to replicate the scheme, thanks to its success in Mysuru. Besides fulfilling the interests and wishes of the visitors, who were adopting animals and birds for special occasions like birthdays, the scheme also brought revenue to one of the oldest zoos in the country.

The adoption of animals at the century-old Mysuru zoo has been made easy, with flexible options. Animal lovers and wildlife enthusiasts can now adopt animals and birds of their choice even for a day.

The animal adoption scheme, which was first launched at the Mysuru Zoo more than two decades ago, became a hugely popular scheme, encouraging other zoos in the State to replicate the scheme, thanks to its success in Mysuru. Besides fulfilling the interests and wishes of the visitors, who were adopting animals and birds for special occasions like birthdays, the scheme also brought revenue to one of the oldest zoos in the country.

Until recently, under the scheme, adoption was possible for a period of one year, after paying the requisite adoption fees. Now, changes have been brought to the scheme where the animals and the birds can be adopted for a day, a month, and also for a period of six months. Also, the zoo provides a certificate of appreciation to those going for adoption. Interested people can adopt the animals by visiting www.mysuruzoo.info or visiting the zoo to take up the adoptions.

The zoo has 145 species of animals and birds in 1,450 numbers. The annual maintenance of the zoos comes up to ₹60 crore. The animal adoption fee in zoos across the State was hiked a few years ago because of the increasing maintenance costs. For adoptions, the animals and birds have been classified species-wise into 13 groups. The scheme came as a saviour post-COVID-19 when the zoo was in a serious financial crisis with footfalls falling drastically.

The species have been categorized in diamond class, gold class, silver class, and bronze class. The adoption is possible for a sum of ₹1,000 to ₹3,00,000 per annum. The cost worked out under the revised scheme (day, month and six months) can be accessed from the zoo office.

In the diamond class, elephants, gorilla, lion, tiger, giraffe, orangutan, chimpanzee, Indian rhinoceros, hippopotamus, zebra, and African hunting cheetah have been included. The highest adoption fee under the class is for Asiatic and African elephants besides gorilla, whose adoption costs ₹3 lakh per annum. In the gold class, black panther, Indian leopard, sloth bear, Asiatic black bear, gaur, jaguar, cape buffalo are included and their adoption costs ₹50,000 per annum. In the same class, the adoption is possible from ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 per annum.

In the silver class, the adoption fee ranges from ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 and the animal and birds included under this class are swamp deer, scarlet macaw, slender loris, hog deer, black swan, Sarus crane, saltwater crocodile, Nile crocodile, leopard cat, great Indian hornbill and others. The adoption fee ranges from ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 in bronze class which mostly comprises different species of birds, including gray jungle fowl, peacock, silver pheasant, snakes like python, parrots and others.