Another giraffe dies at
Courtesy New Age 6/10/09
Staff Correspondent
Another giraffe died at the Dhaka Zoo on Monday in the short span of a month calling to question the efficiency of the zoo officials who look after the animals brought from abroad.
‘Our officials relentlessly worked with the giraffe for the last 11 days but the animal expired for unknown reason,’ zoo curator Mosaddeque Hossain told New Age.
When asked whether the animal was suffering any ailment, the curator said no noticeable symptom was found.
‘We sent the autopsy report to foreign experts to ascertain the reason of its death,’ he said.
This was the third death of giraffe in a row at Dhaka Zoo after two other giraffes died from dehydration on September 8 and 30.
Zoo officials said the giraffe had been suffering from illness since September 23.
This was one of the five giraffes brought to Dhaka zoo from South Africa in June 2008 and with the deaths of three of them, their number dwindled to two now.
A zoo official said, ‘On an average, a giraffe lives from 12 to 15 years.’
When asked how many animals are ill at the zoo, he said the number was very few but 42 aged animals including lions and tigers were living in the cages.
The curator and a deputy curator of the zoo were suspended last month after the first died.
A rare
They said that a sambar deer, baboon, wildebeest, Malayan tapir, a tiger, two fresh water crocodiles and one zebra were among the animals that died at the zoo since January 2009.
When asked about the deaths of a number of animals last month, the curator termed it as coincidental.
The Dhaka Zoo, located at Mirpur on 213 acres of land, is the home of around 4,000 animals of 161 species.
Of them, 59 species are mammals including elephant, Royal Bengal Tiger, lion, cheetah, rhinoceros, zebra, monkey, chimpanzee, and hippo.
There are 61 species of birds, 12 species of reptiles including snakes and crocodiles and 29 species of fish.
__._,_.___