Present from Riga: Tbilisi welcomes new zoo animals (VIDEO)
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Georgia has warmly welcomed a present from Riga Zoo - a camel, yak, alpacas and parrots – which were all welcomed to their new home at Tbilisi Zoo last night.
Latvia’s capital Riga helped Tbilisi restore the animal collection of the city’s zoo, which was severely damaged in last summer’s deadly flood.
Seven animals from the Riga Zoo collection – a Bactrian camel named Villijs, three alpacas called Tomass, Karmen and Kamene, a domestic yak named Pupols and a pair of blue-and-yellow macaws named Cabulis and Filipina arrived in Tbilisi to become the first animals the city zoo receive since the natural disaster of June 13, 2015.
The camel, yak and alpacas spent about a week being transported from Riga to Georgia’s Black Sea coastal city Batumi by ferry. The animals arrived in Tbilisi last night, where a handful of animal professionals and animal lovers met them and served them apples to ease their stress.
A message on the containers in which the animals were transported said that this was a present from Riga to Tbilisi. The total cost of transporting the animals - €15,000 – was fully covered by the Latvian side.
A ferry carrying the animals from Riga arrives in Batumi, Georgia. Photo source: Tbilisi Zoo/Facebook
Meanwhile the donated birds, which were more sensitive to travel stress, were flown to Tbilisi on March 19.
Tbilisi Zoo lost almost a half of its animals in last year’s flood. The disaster also destroyed the lower part of the animal park and the majority of animals that lived in enclosures in this area either died or escaped from their cages.
Those from the lower section that survived were rehoused in the upper area of the zoo, where most of the enclosures remained intact. After the disaster several new cages were built and more are currently being constructed to house the new animals.
Since the flood a number of foreign zoos expressed their readiness to help Tbilisi Zoo. Riga was the first city to turn their words into action but the Georgian capital is preparing to receive other animals from several other zoos in the future.
A disaster is unfolding in Georgia's capital Tbilisi. Heavy rain is causing major damage in Tbilisi's Vake-Saburtalo district. Roads have been swamped, cars have been washed away and houses have been severely flooded. Several animals have also escaped from Tbilisi Zoo.
The destructive June 13 flood in Georgia's capital Tbilisi affected a vast area in the central part of the city, including the city zoo, which found itself at the heart of the disaster.
Exactly three months on from the flood that destroyed Tbilisi Zoo, the animal park has reopened today.
One positive thing to emerge from the disaster is when Tbilisi Zoo reopens it will be home to several new monkeys, who will be sent here from abroad. Other animals will also join Tbilisi Zoo as soon as new, open-air cages are constructed on the Zoo’s territory.
In three years’ time a new zoo is going to open in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi and once operating it will be one of the biggest zoos in Europe.
Almost six days has passed since Tbilisi Zoo was hit by a flash flood, causing the death of hundreds of animals and leaving the animal park in a state of complete chaos.
A year on from the destructive flood, life in Tbilisi Zoo is thriving again as staff welcome newborn animals and donated arrivals from European zoos.
More monkeys are returning to Tbilisi Zoo after all of the monkeys that formerly called Tbilisi Zoo home perished in the June 13, 2015 flash flood.
Tbilisi Zoo is preparing to welcome 14 new animals donated by Latvian and English zoos this Monday. There will be a tiger among the new animals.
A square named for Tbilisi will soon be built in the very centre of the Latvian capital of Riga. Georgian and Latvian officials yesterday held a sod-turning ceremony for the new square in Brivibas Gatve, Riga’s central avenue.