In a bid to attract more visitors, Chittagong Zoo has procured two pairs of ostriches and two pairs of emus.
The birds were released into their newly-constructed cages on Monday.
Dr Shahadat Hossain, Chittagong Zoo's acting deputy curator and veterinary surgeon, told the Dhaka Tribune that the new guests were bought from a private farm in the country.
"Each pair of ostriches and emus cost the zoo Tk2.80 lakh and Tk1.30 lakh respectively," he added.
The main difference between emus and ostriches is that the emu is the second-largest bird in the world, native to Australia, whereas the ostrich is the largest bird in the world, native to Africa.
While emus have deep brown-coloured feathers, male ostriches have white and black-coloured feathers, and female ostriches have white and brown-coloured feathers.
With the addition of the birds, the Chittagong zoo now hosts tigers, lions, capped langurs, hoolock gibbons, rhesus macaques, peafowl, fishing cats, jungle cats, barking deer, peacocks, pied hornbills, large civets, leopard cats, griffon vultures, marsh crocodiles, storks, yellow turtles, Indian pythons, and Bengal foxes.
Launched on February 28, 1989, the zoo, run by the Chittagong district administration, is located on about 2.5 hectares of hilly terrain in the city’s Foy’s Lake area.