Animal deaths at Patna zoo cause for concern

Animal deaths at Patna zoo cause for concernv

Abhay Kumar in Patna, Sep 16 2017, 23:38 IST 

Vishal now looks forlorn at Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Park in Patna. Mohan Prasad

The recent death of a lioness at Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Park in Patna has not only sent shock waves among animal lovers but also raised certain questions as to how seven cubs, a tigress, a tiger and a lioness have died here in the last six years.

Saraswati was just nine years old when she was found dead on July 25 this year. One of the prime attractions of Patna Zoo, the lioness was brought here in 2011 from Hyderabad under an animal exchange programme.

A team of veterinarians, consisting of eight doctors, conducted autopsy and concluded that cardiac arrest caused the death of the lioness. “Normally, the life span of a lion or lioness is 12 to 13 years in the wild. But if kept in zoo, they survive till the age of 15 to 18 years. This is because when kept in captivity, they get proper food and care. While it’s not so when they roam around in the wild. In very rare case, a lion’s life is around 20 years,” Patna Zoo Director Nand Kishore told DH.

The Zoo director had personally monitored the lioness a few hours before she passed away. He ruled out any nutritional deficiency as the cause for death. Now, Vishal, Saraswati’s partner, needs a partner.

Two years after Saraswati was brought here, she mated with Vishal, younger to her. But under the special breeding programme, Saraswati gave birth to two cubs in August 2013.

However, the mother (lioness) refused to feed the cubs. As a consequence, the health of a cub, which was born weak, deteriorated and passed away next day. The other cub was then brought up with a lot of effort.

After Saraswati refused to feed the second cub too, the zoo employees had to hand-feed him. The cub, named Sheru, survived on goat’s milk for the first three months and thereafter started to consume meat. Sheru is now one of the main crowd-pullers here.

Since Asiatic lions are found only in Gir Forest in Gujarat, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) mandarins were quite enamoured over the report on how the Patna Zoo officials had helped Vishal and Saraswati mate and made every effort for survival of one of its cub. According to the established norms of the CZA, breeding of hybrid lions is prohibited in zoos. “But we can go ahead with the breeding of Asiatic lioness,” the official added.

The CZA officials mulled over a proposal on how to develop a lion conservation zone on the zoo premises spread over 152 acres. Developing lion conservation area was aimed at providing an off-display area to the lions, where they can enjoy their natural surroundings. “However, the proposal could not make much headway,” the zoo official rued.

Unfortunately, in the last six years, Saraswati was the 10th death reported in the big cat family of Patna Zoo. In 2011, Tejaswani, a white tigress, and the prime attraction at the zoo, died after days of illness. The post-mortem report said she had a blockage in intestine. Earlier, in 2011, male tiger Ram too had died after a prolonged illness. The 17-year-old tiger in Patna Zoo was suffering from posterior cirrhosis.

In August 2012, a Royal Bengal tigress at Patna Zoo had given birth to three cubs. Everyone was quite delighted as it was after a gap of 19 years that a big cat had delivered at the zoo here. But the enormous joy was short-lived. In the next 20 days, tigress Swarna lost all the three cubs.

It was believed that Swarna stopped feeding the cubs after she developed an intestinal infection. Eventually, the cubs too contracted the infection from their mother, and since then were put under the observation of zoo doctors.

Though the cubs were separated from the mother and bottle-fed, things turned for the worse when the cubs refused goat milk too. The then Patna zoo director sought the help of Dr Abhijit Bhaval, a reputed doctor from Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), but to no avail.

“The origin of the infection was not known but toxins must have entered the cubs’ body while they were in tiger enclosure. An infection cause toxins spread rapidly in the body of new-borns. The intensity of infection was so high in the cubs that none of the medicines worked,” said another doctor, who did not wish to be identified.

In March 2017, two more cubs died. On July 20, 2017, yet another cub died. “Reports suggest that the tiger cub died on July 20 due to hyper-parathyriodism. This is a condition where there is over production of parathyroid hormone which eventually weakens bones,” said the zoo director.

Saraswati was the latest casualty, although for a different reason: cardiac arrest. “Now only one lioness and three lions are left at the Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Park. Besides, we have three tigers and three tigresses,” said Nand Kishore hoping that the number of big cat family members won’t dwindle any more.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/633496/animal-deaths-patna-zoo-cause.html