Zeenews Bureau
London: In an awesome combination of dream, planning and technology, the BBC has opened the world’s biggest online zoo featuring hundreds of animals.
The zoo has none of the disappointments – lion staying in their dens, snakes preferring to remain away from the public’s glare - that a visitor has to encounter in a traditional zoo.
The zoo has 370 animals for the start and the databank of clips and still pictures will be reinforced daily. The BBC staff is exploring several wildlife programmes to enhance their collection.
Darwin’s frog, found in Chile forests and which gives birth through the mouth of the male. The birth process is repeated in slow motion.
The website is classified into animal kingdom`s main categories, such as mammals, fish and birds, and is further sub-divided in tiers through subspecies. Long-standing favourites such as meerkats are in the launch selection but the spotlight also shines on the nocturnal and hardly-ever-seen Sundar Flying Lemur, or Malay Colugo. A rat-like rodent, this opens itself out into a sort of aerial handbag to glide silently through the forests of Borneo in the dark. Equally shy are the Dumbo octopi, the only wild species to be named after a Disney character.
Nearly 25 percent of the animals have more than one clip each.
