The dead zebra at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 25: The lone male zebra at the Nandankanan Zoological Park was found dead this morning.
Though the zoo authorities had initially suspected lightning to be the cause of the death, post-mortem on the three-and-a-half years old animal revealed bacterial infection to be the cause.
Zoo officials said there were no symptoms of any weakness in the animal till last night. Later, a team of doctors conducted an autopsy. 'The animal was spotted lying dead in its enclosure this morning. Preliminary findings of the post-mortem on the animal revealed bacterial infection as the cause of death,' said the zoo's deputy director Jayant Dash.
However, the zebra's death has forced the authorities to conduct a detailed probe as four of the zebras, brought from Tel Aviv in Israel in September 2015, have died within two years.
The zoo had brought two male and female zebras in September 2015 from Israel after the 12-year-old female zebra Sabita, born in the zoo, had died in January 2015. The zoo had to spent around Rs 25 lakh for transportation of animals from Israel.
While both the female zebras brought from Israel had died in August and October last year, another male zebra died in May this year. Zoo sources said the bacteria, responsible for the death of the animals, were found in soil.
'The enclosure will be sanitised, and we are planning to replace the soil depth between one and two metres of the enclosure with new soil. The enclosure will be kept vacant for around one year,' said a zoo official.
Zoo officials said a detailed probe would ascertain the cause behind the deaths of the four zebras.
'The zoo has decided not to bring any zebras from abroad and will talk to other zoos in the country for the purpose,' he said.
In another development, the zoo would receive a pair Nilgiri langurs tomorrow from the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Chennai, through animal exchange programme.
The Nandankanan zoo will also receive four white peafowls, 10 painted storks and a pair of reticulated pythons from Chennai zoo in exchange of 19 animals.
