Lionness brought from Gujarat to Kerala zoo dead

Radha, an Asiatic lioness, which was brought to the zoo here from Gujarat last month, died of posterior paralysis on Thursday, forest officials said.

The 6.5-year-old lioness was brought along with a lion named Nagarajan fromthe Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden in exchange for two Malabar giant squirrels.

"She (Radha) has been ailing since the day of her arrival here on August 18 and has not been eating properly," chief forest veterinary officer E K Easwaran told PTI.

A team of veterinarians and pathologists has been examining her thoroughly but she died early in the morning," he said.

A postmortem was conducted and the carcass consigned to flames within the zoo premises.

"We have found some aberration in the brain. We have retrieved the brain tissue and will be sending it for further examination to ascertain the cause of death," the officer said.

"She was diagnosed with posterior paralysis two weeks ago. The forelegs and front part of the body was active. The animal showed some sort of bacterial infection but we were unable to confirm it despite various tests," Easwaran said.

The two lions were supposed to be sent to the Lion Safari Park at Neyyar Dam near here.

He said the Gujarat zoo authorities had certified the pair as healthy. The lions were transported to the Kerala in a specific cage which was built according to the guidelines of Central Zoo Authority and it took four days to reach here.

"Normally, such long journeys are tiresome for animals. They get tired and might take a week or more to recover. But not in her case. However, Nagaraj is healthy," the officer said.

The chief veterinary officer also said the captive animal would normally eat around 6.5 kg of meat a day, but Radha took only around 2.5 to 4kg.

Nagaraj was still at the zoo which was the transit point for the beasts before taking them to the Neyyar safari park.

The Lion Safari Park was opened in 1984 near Neyyar Dam with four lions.

Over the years, the population of lions increased but later it was controlled.

At present, there is only oneAfrican-Asian species named Sindhu, which is 18 years old.