The death of a tigress from Wayanad at the Thrissur zoo on Thursday has highlighted the need for solutions to avoid the problems arising out of their translocation.
A chronic lung infection affected the lung capacity of the tigress, Durga, reducing the flow of oxygen to body parts and leading to multiple organ failure, Thrissur zoo veterinarian Binoy C. Babu said. Last year, the Thiruvananthapuram zoo had received one female leopard and one tiger, both trapped in Wayanad.
In June this year, a tigress captured at a coffee plantation in Wayanad died within hours of being brought to the Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Zoo officials said that most of the big cats brought to the zoos had been captured when they strayed into human habitations either because they were aged, had a disease or an injury, preventing them from hunting.
Besides the stress to the already weak animals during their capture and translocation, there is lack of space to accommodate the new arrivals in zoos. After the arrival of the leopard and the tiger, the Thiruvananthapuram zoo had to convey its inability to take in any more.
Of the three tigers at the Thrissur zoo, two were brought from Wayanad, and of the five leopards, two were from Wayanad, and one from Nilambur.
As the Thrissur zoo lacks a quarantine facility, bringing in wild animals that could harbour any disease could prove hazardous to other animals in the zoo, officials said.
Zoo officials said there was need for local rescue and rehabilitation centres, as in the case of other States. They cited the example of Gir sanctuary where big cats that cannot be released into the wild were housed in a safari-like natural setting.
Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary warden P. Dhaneshkumar said local rehabilitation centres would be difficult as Forest Department resources were already stretched.
Even if the tigers were taken care of at the sanctuary, they would have to be put up in individual cages owing to their solitary nature. “A safari requires a large area, and it is difficult to carve out space inside the sanctuary for a safari when there is already so much competition among animals for the existing area. Outside the sanctuary, almost no space is available.”
A way out will be for the government to set up a well-equipped special wing, with adequate doctors, dedicated to taking care of the captured tigers, he said.
