The calf with its mother on Thursday. Telegraph picture

Patna, Jan. 28: The joy of Patna zoo officials over the birth of a giraffe calf was cut short today as it breathed its last around 6.15am.

The atmosphere in the zoo was electric after the calf’s birth on Wednesday evening. Thirty-six hours on, everything turned sombre. The zoo officials were shocked over the abrupt death of the newborn. Its mother was restless.

“The calf appeared quite normal when I inspected it last on Thursday around 9pm and we never expected it would leave our company just 36 hours after its birth,” a visibly shocked Patna zoo doctor Ajit Kumar told The Telegraph.

He said after 18 hours of tension everyone in the zoo and senior forest department officials were happy when the calf started mother feeding on Thursday afternoon. None expected their happiness would be so shortlived.

The sadness of the senior forest officials was visible. “This is one of the saddest days of my life,” chief wildlife warden Mithilesh Kumar said.

So particular were the zoo officials about the well-being of the new guest that they had deployed four guards outside the giraffe enclosure throughout the night for keeping a tab on the calf’s behaviour.

“The guards told us that the baby giraffe behaved normally in the night but in the morning it became dull and died after shivering,” Dr Kumar said.

The mother giraffe behaved abnormally after the death of its child. It appeared restless after the body of the calf was removed from the enclosure and was sent for autopsy to Patna veterinary college.

“The reasons behind the death of the calf would be known only after three days as certain pathological investigations have to be conducted,” said the zoo doctor.

Though Dr Kumar refused to cite any prima facie reason behind the death of the calf, zoo sources said it might have died because of some internal injury as the male giraffe, the father of the dead calf, had hit it several times before it was separated from the mother and the baby.

Patna zoo at present has three giraffes — one male and two females. These giraffes were brought here from San Diego zoo in the US in 2006. The birth of the first baby four years after arrival of the long-necked animals had brought cheers on the faces of the zoo officials.

Apart from Patna zoo, the zoos in Calcutta, Chennai, Guwahati, Lucknow, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mysore house giraffes. Their total number is 23.

Patna zoo had earned the distinction of being the third zoo of the country after Calcutta and Mysore zoos to have witnessed the birth of a calf of a giraffe.