A day after a 10-year-old Royal Bengal tigress at Delhi zoo was killed by her mate — released into the female enclosure for breeding purposes — in a botched bid to breed, zoo officials have put a stop to the entire process for a while. Tigers will not mate till they are acclimatised. As of now, the carcass of the tigress, called Zinzin, will be sent for an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.
The incident came as a setback to the zoo, which is now left with only two females and three male Royal Bengal tigers. According to officials, the tiger that killed was born captive in Mysore zoo and the incident was unexpected because zoo-bred tigers are not known to display such extreme behaviour.
After the tiger was released in the tigress’ enclosure, he had initially wandered around with her for two-and-a-half hours after which he suddenly attacked her. He squeezed her jugular vein (veins that bring deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart) and killed her. The zoo officials tried to separate the big cats, but the male tiger had the Bengal tigress in a vice-like grip.
Although such incidents of fighting are normal in the wild but it was for the first time in Delhi zoo, said zoo curator Riyaz Khan who added that fights seldom turned this violent. Currently, Delhi zoo homes five Royal Bengal tigers — three males, two females — and six white tigers. Recently, a female white tigress was sent to Thiruvananthapuram zoo as a part of an inter-zoo exchange programme.