Patna zoo. Telegraph picture

Patna, May 11: Patna zoo has lost its only male tiger Ram. The 16-year-old feline breathed it last on Tuesday but zoo officials shared the information about its death today.

“The autopsy report suggests that the death has taken place due to respiratory failure caused by the old age of the animal,” zoo director Abhay Kumar told The Telegraph and added that the dead animal was cremated on Tuesday itself.

Ram had not been keeping well for the past four years and in 2007, it had suffered a paralytic attack during which it also got two wounds in its head.

“While the tiger had almost recovered from the paralytic attack in due course of treatment, the wound on its head never got fully cured,” said the director.

Ram was brought to Patna zoo from Bhopal in 2000. After his death, the Patna zoo is now left with just two tigresses Sita and Tejashwini. While Sita is 16 years old, Tejashwini, a white tigress, is 12. The average age of a tiger or tigress is 16 years.

Keeping the absence of a male tiger in mind as well as the growing age of the two tigresses, the zoo officials at Patna have expedited the process of getting new felines under the exchange programme.

“One of our exchange proposals has already been approved by the Central Zoo Authority but we are weighing our options as the animals being offered are not very healthy,” said Abhay.

According to the aforesaid proposal, Patna zoo would provide a pair of rhinos to Hyderabad zoo and it would get one Asiatic lion and three tigers-one pair of Royal Bengal tiger and a male white tiger- under the exchange programme.

“The tigers being offered to us are not very healthy and we have pointed out this deficiency to our counterparts in Hyderabad. They have promised to look into our request and are looking for better options,” Kumar said.

The Patna zoo, however, is not solely relying on the assurance given by the Hyderabad officials and they are in touch with Junagadh zoo officials as well.

The Junagadh zoo, too, has agreed to provide the same number of lion and tigers against one pair of rhino from Patna zoo under the exchange programme.

“If we get more healthy animals from Junagadh we would go for that option as having young healthy pairs of tigers would also lead to breeding in our zoo,” said Kumar.