CHENNAI: A six-year-old lioness at Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur, which delivered a still-born cub on Monday, died on Wednesday, succumbing to uterine puncture, said a park official.
Mala was one of the 15 lions in the zoo, born along with Neela and Maya. All three lionesses were christened by the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. “All three sisters were generally weak and fell sick often,” said a senior park official.
Lioness Maya died when she was only a few months old. She was the last home-bred lion to die in the Vandalur zoo. “A rescued circus lion died a few months ago, but he outlived the average life expectancy,” the park official said. On Monday, Mala’s delivery got complicated, as the cub was being pushed out leg-first.
The improper orientation of the offspring prolonged the delivery, according to the official. “We could not go for a Cesarean section as we did not have advanced medical kits to appropriately tranquillise Mala,” the official said, adding that the lioness had to undergo a stressful natural delivery, which damaged the walls of her uterus extensively. While the cub was born dead, the mother continued to remain sick until she died on Wednesday.
“The wounds eventually led to an infection pushing the lioness to death according to the postmortem examination report,” the official said. There 14 lions now. Four of them are roaming in the area allocated for the lion safari while the others stay together in the enclosure in which Mala lived.