Lion dies in Hyderabad zoo

A 15-year-old Asiatic lion in the Nehru Zoological Park breathed its last two days ago, following chronic illness.

Septicaemia owing to an undiagnosed abscess in the temporal region resulted in the death of the lion named Crazy, zoo officials informed, after conducting post-mortem on Friday. It had been brought here from Rajkot in 2010 to change the bloodline.

The immediate cause of death was diagnosed to be severe damage to lungs, due to sepsis of thoracic region. Experts, who conducted post mortem, noticed multiple nodules inside the lungs, which, they opine, may have been indicative of tuberculosis. Samples of the organs have been collected and sent for analysis.

The zoo veterinarians could not locate the reason during the three-month suffering of the animal.

“Swelling was noticed in the face, but we attributed it to insect bite, and gave the treatment accordingly. Unfortunately, till we conducted post mortem, we did not know about the existence of the abscess,” informed an official, while admitting that for a lion in captivity, Crazy died earlier than expected.

Veterinarians from Veterinary Biological and Research Institute, CCMB LaCONES, Government Veterinary College, and others participated in the post mortem.

Crazy’s death came close on the heels of the death of another zoo animal, a female elephant named Jamuna, after chronic illness. Three more animals, two Asiatic lions, a panther and a white tiger named Vinay, are fighting for life in the zoo’s summer house, a source informed.