Cuba bestows Namibia 146 animals

Cuba bestows Namibia 146 animals

Taxpayers have to pay for fishing, quarantine, veterinary expenses and flights

About how much the gift of Cuba's National Zoo Park in the form of nearly 150 animals will ultimately Namibia, the Minister may only after completion of fishing operations and transport to announce. In the scientific field will enable the two countries cooperate in the future.

Windhoek - Whether it was true that the Bomas (temporary enclosures) to have cost in the Etosha National Park and the Waterberg Plateau Park of 25 million Namibian dollars in order to seal off hermetically sealed at the request of the Cubans and animals there to keep them in quarantine, answered The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, not yesterday. "The cost of the Bomas commitments are an investment for the future, as we have numerous programs to provide animals from municipal parks and conservancies Neufarmern available and the bomas are then used," said the Minister of the Environment. She signed with the Director-General of the National Zoo-Park in Cuba, Maj. Gen. Abud Luis Miguel Soto, a cooperation agreement for scientific and technical cooperation in the field of environment with Cuba and Namibia, as well as a donation agreement.
"The people of Namibia to give Cuba 146 animals like white rhinos worth 7.5 million Namibian dollars and will pay for all fishing, quarantine, veterinary and flight costs," said Nandi-Ndaitwah. "We look forward fresh genetic material for our national zoo park and get to do everything that the animals are doing well. The Zoo Park is 342 acres in size, it more than 850 animals living there and they find a natural habitat from where they can live semi-wild, "said Maj. Gen. Soto.



Today, the first animals to the Waterberg Plateau Park and caught the first launched in October of this year by air to Cuba. The end of next year, the project will be completed. What it will cost the taxpayer at the end could not answer the Minister. The Treasury, however, have given his consent for the donation and the resulting costs. The following animals are in the wild and flown to Cuba (number of males and females in parentheses): horse antelopes (2:6), Impala (2:6), kudu (2:6), eland (2:6), white rhino or White Rhinoceros (2:3), black rhino and black rhino (2:3), oryx (2:6), springbok (3:7), hartebeest (2:6), elephants (1:4), buffalo (2 3), spotted hyena (2:6), brown hyena (2-2), Lowe (2-2), porcupines (3:3), leopard (3:3), backed jackal (3:3), Cheetah (2 4), Caracal (2:2), honey badger (2:2), bat-eared fox (2-2), ostriches (2:6) and white-backed vulture (4:4). Instead of Serval, who were still on the revised list in the past year, porcupines, and instead of honey badgers were Cape foxes set.
Several delegations from Namibia had visited the zoo park in Cuba and considered the preserve admissible. "We live in an African plains animals, and many visitors take a bus into the enclosure. The lions live in a large outdoor enclosure. The Zoo Park is important for the education, so that our children flora and fauna and learn the problems of environmental protection, "said Soto. In the future it will also give a close cooperation between scientists of both countries, especially in the field of animal husbandry and conservation. "If our people have the knowledge, they can help parks in all of Latin America," said the director general of the National Zoo-Park in Cuba.