Tigress Durga died but the controversy surrounding the mysterious death could liven up the debate among animal lovers as to why the tigress died and how death was allowed to strengthen its grip on a species already on the verge of extinction. To the dismay of admirers of the big-cat, Durga’s death began over a year back.
The big-cat was said to have succumbed to the ‘rarest of rare disease’—Toxemia—as a result of ‘mummification’ of foetus lying in the uterus of the unfortunate tigress. The knowledge of the same surprisingly came to the zoo officials entrusted to keep her in good condition only after the big cat reached in an incurable state. The incident happened on December 14, more than a year after mating and confirmation of pregnancy.
The tigress was mated with a tiger in 2013 and belly enlargement, a sign of conceiving, was subsequently observed in September 2013. The clock ideally starts ticking as a tigress is said to deliver cub in the span of 120-days from the mating season however the tigress could not deliver leading to mummification of the foetus and further complications right to the point of ‘laboured breathing’—heavy respiratory activity. While the zoo officials were privy to the information related to mating and following stages, their knowledge did not translate into action as no medical test was conducted on the tigress after things started going wrong.
“Pregnancy was confirmed by looking at the changes in the physical attributes but there is no mechanism available with us to examine the state of foetus in a tigress’ uterus. The tigress used to get sexually active even after getting pregnant so we thought that everything is ok,” said Director, Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park, Ormanjhi, AK Patra.
However, zoo officials lacked the courage to go extra-mile to ensure safety of the tigress and take necessary measures to save the precious life. The tigress did not deliver the cub yet the action was missing on the part of zoo officials because of the fear of negative effect on the tigress due to sedative that is used on the big-cat before taking blood samples for medical examination. But the mystery behind inaction deepens as one digs deeper.
“Pseudo-pregnancy is rare among big-cats. Moreover, we normally don’t sedate a tigress who is pregnant. It increases their stress level,” pointed out Patra.
Amid the paradox of pseudo-pregnancy and pregnancy, the zoo officials have sent samples of Durga’s vital organs to Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly and Ranchi Veterinary College (RVC) for histopathology test.
“The report will take somewhere 10 to 15 days. I cannot comment about conditions leading to death at the moment,” said Dr NK Gupta of RVC.
Meanwhile, zoo officials have pointed at signing MoU with the Ranchi Veterinary College for routine check-up of animals. Also, steps have been initiated from the Director’s end to bring another tigress from Nandan Kanan under animal exchange programme.