The Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) near here has witnessed the death of at least 11 animal just in a month during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sudden surge in the animals’ mortality at the zoo raised concern among the authorities after a 27-year-old female Indian bear succumbed to a kind of infection just in 12 hours of the death of a same bear species, ‘Debasish’, aged about 7-and-half-year.
The female bear Arati died under treatment, informed NZP Deputy Director Bimal Chandra Acharya. She was an inmate of the zoo since September 13, 2013 when she was 20 years old. Following her death, Professor Niaranjan Sahoo from the OUAT conducted the autopsy that revealed that the animal’s intestine was infected with a same virus detected in body of Debasish.
With these two deaths, a total of three bears have died in the zoo in the last 18 days.Meanwhile, another Indian bear ‘Lija’ (8) is now undergoing treatment in the ICU of Nandankanan veterinary after being infected with the same deadly virus. She had been brought to Nandankanan after being rescued from Khallikote in Ganjam district when she was only two years old.Besides, two more bears have shown similar symptoms at the zoo. The veterinary doctors have begun their treatment.
As a precautionary measure, 15 Indian bears, including five females, have been vaccinated to protect them from infection.
Reports said that over 30 animals have died at the zoo in a span of six months during the pandemic.Such a situation had never occurred in the past at the zoo, which is closed for over 180 days since March 2020 due to the pandemic.
Though no bigger animal has died in the recent past, the death of a few rare species including an anaconda and a Himalayan bear have upset wildlife lovers.
On August 16, two baby marmoset monkeys were born, of which one died within two days. Presently, there are four marmosets at the zoo. Two days after the incident, on August 18, a 25-year-old Brahminy kite died due to age-related ailments. With its death, only one Brahminy kite is left. In the past one month, one sambar and two deer have died at the zoo.
On August 25, a female golden pheasant died following an infection. Among the snake species, only two king cobras are now at the zoo after the death of one on August 31.
Notably, the NZP now has only five anacondas. Last year, two anacondas had died. A total of eight yellow anacondas were brought to Nandankanan from the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology in Chennai on October 22, 2019.
The first death of anaconda at the zoo was reported on November 28, 2019. The zoo lost its second anaconda in two days on November 30, 2019.
