Three exotic Keel-billed toucan birds stolen from Kolkata zoo, police complaint lodged

According to the zoo authority, unknown thieves stole these three birds from their cage on Wednesday midnight.

"We had four Keel-billed toucan birds in a big cage near the lion's enclosure and for last few days, three of them were kept in a smaller cage for some treatments, and those three were stolen from the smaller cage," a senior official of the zoological garden told IBNS.

"Two security guards were posted just 50 metres away from the cage that night, we still can not understand how those birds were stolen," the official said.

The zoo authority had already removed those two private security guards from their duties.

A senior city police officer said that a probe had been initiated into the incident.

"We have collected three CCTV footage from the zoo authority and are interrogating zoo's security guards to get an idea about the bird-thieves," he added.

These Latin American colourful birds were rescued by the BSF at Petrapole border while those were being smuggled into Bangladesh months ago, and later these exotic birds were handed over to the Alipore zoo authority.

Earlier in August 2009, eight wild Brazilian Marmoset monkeys (Callithrix Jacchus) were stolen from the Alipore zoological garden.

Later that month, seven of those eight rare Marmoset monkeys were rescued from Chhattisgarh and one smuggler was arrested when the remaining one had died in the thieves' possession.