Lucknow, April 10 (IANS) One of five zebras at the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden in Lucknow died in its enclosure in a freak accident.
The female zebra reportedly did not have any prior medical conditions.
The incident took place after the keeper served the evening meal to the inmates. The male and female zebras living together in an enclosure suddenly got excited and began running.
The male zebra on reaching the end of the enclosure took a sharp turn but the female failed to do so and ran into the chain-link fence of the enclosure and collapsed.
This was the second case of a zebra death after they were brought to the city zoo from Ramat Gan Safari from Israel on November 25, 2021.
According to the officials, the zebras were keeping well and had no sign of illness.
“We are taking all possible precautions, but this is an unfortunate loss to the zoo. The cause of death will be revealed only after the post-mortem on Monday,” said assistant director and chief veterinarian Dr Utkarsh Shukla.
In a similar incident, a male zebra had died on November 27, 2021, when the zebras, after getting excited due to unknown reasons, made a sudden movement and started running inside the enclosure.
After this, five zebras were left in the zoo which were provided enclosures.
The remaining two — one male and female each — from the first shipment lived in an enclosure while the other three — one male and two females — were allotted another nearby enclosure.
The demise of the zebra has left two male and female zebras each in the zoo.
“The city zoo had taken care of zebras in the past but the main reason behind the death of the zebras is due to their erratic behaviour. They have still not adapted completely in the surroundings, so they get excited easily. We were asked to send two zebras as part of an animal exchange programme to Ashfaqullah Khan Gorakhpur Zoo, but we have been waiting for their normal behaviour to curb any mishap,” said zoo director V.K. Mishra.
Officials at the city zoo are trying to find out the reason behind the erratic behaviour of the exotic animal
According to a note from the zoo, all the zebras had been behaving normally up until a keeper went inside the enclosure to place their feed.
This agitated the animals and they started running around. The female zebra collided with chain link and died on spot, said the note.
The carcass will be examined through an autopsy on Monday.
–IANS
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