Birsa Zoo’s male leopard ‘Hari’ has lost his soul mate while female leopard ‘Sita’ has no one as her sister anymore! It all happened on Saturday evening with premature demise of female leopard ‘Geeta’; caused reportedly due to sub-acute Hepatitis that resulted into cardiac-respiratory failure to the wild attraction for the animal lovers of the Capital.
“There were no symptoms of the disease. Geeta was moving, eating, urinating and defecating in a routine manner till Saturday afternoon. Even her body temperature was normal. Suddenly, in the evening at 5:30 pm she was gasping and then died at 5:40 pm. It was because of ageing liver or genetic disorder that led to the sub-acute Hepatitis,” said Zoo Director AK Patra after the unfortunate incident.
The cause of the death came in light on Sunday after the body of the big cat was performed post-mortem by Ranchi Veterinary College Pathologist Dr KK Sinha. later, the whole carcass was burned in the presence of Patra and his colleagues. However, some parts like spleen, flesh and tissues of Geeta have been sent to the Veterinary College for histology. The report of the histology will be given on Monday.
Patra said Geeta could have been treated if symptoms were visible before her death. “Vaccination of the wild animals is done for the classical diseases around the globe. For hepatitis there is likely no regular vaccination,” Zoo doctor Ajay Kumar said. In the recent scenario, it is the first of its kind death in the zoo. The last leopard death in the zoo took place on June 22, 2013. 17 year old male leopard ‘Raja’ had died due to chronic digestion problems. He was a born in Sanjay Gandhi Botanical and Zoological Garden in Patna.
The normal life span of a leopard as per Patra is usually up to 15 years. ‘Geeta’ was aged around 13 or 14 years while ‘Sita’ is 17 year old. Both the females were brought here from Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden, Junagadh district of Gujarat on July 5, 2008. With Geeta’s death, now four leopards are left in the zoo namely Sita, Hari, Dharmendra and Kajal. Cage keeper of the animals Sadhu Oraon claimed that Hari is feeling lonely after Geeta’s death as they both were couple and would spend time together. While, Sita has no other female to feel empowered.
Asked whether the zoo authorities are suspecting the death from the extreme heat, Zoo doctor Ajay Kumar said, “Geeta’s stomach had four liters water and undigested meat pieces. It clearly indicates she was not suffering from dehydration.” Patra pointed on the measures taken for avoiding heatstroke. “Considering the high temperature, the inmates are no more kept within the cell in the night hours also. They are given the liberty to move inside the entire enclosure. We have made a nursery and den attached to the retiring cell for their flexible movement. Also, our team checks the inmates twice daily instead of once,” he said.