Barang: In yet another loss to the Nandankanan zoological park, the lone rhinoceros at the zoo died Wednesday night. The rhinoceros dies just a couple of days after the zoo lost a male baby chimpanzee.
Nanda (40), kept in enclosure No 62, apparently died due old age related ailments at 9pm Wednesday. He was under treatment for the last six months.
The autopsy report released Thursday pointed to digestive problems and old age related complications as the cause of death.
“We tried our best for saving the animal. The post-mortem report revealed the death is due to impaction associated with old age. Food was also found in the intestine. Tissue samples were collected for further tests,” said NZP deputy director Jayanta Kumar Das.
Nanda was the only rhino in the zoo after the death of a female rhinoceros nine years back.
Earlier, a male baby chimpanzee, John, who was undergoing treatment for respiratory complications, died at the zoo Monday morning.
Sources said Nanda’s ailments came to the notice of zoo authorities May 17. He was not taking food and did not excrete.
Zoo doctors removed his excreta after tranquilizing him. Since then he was under treatment and observation. Although he had recovered from the illness, Nanda subsequently suffered paralysis. Meanwhile, the zoo authorities are planning to bring rhinoceros from Patna and Guwahati.
Notably, a male and a female rhinoceros, caught from Kaziranga forest in Assam, were taken to a zoo and then brought to Nandankanan April 4, 1976. However, a few days after bringing the pair to Nandankanan, the male rhinoceros died.
Later, the zoo authorities brought Nanda, who was only two and half years old then, from Guwahati December 2, 1979. The female rhinoceros Nakhi died May 28, 2007.
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