HYDERABAD: A four-year-old female giraffe named Bubli died at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad on Wednesday. While it came to light on Thursday morning that the giraffe was suffering from some lung complications and died as a consequence of the same, officials of the Telangana forest department and Zoo Curator, VVL Subhadra Devi did not respond to calls by Express.
Later in the evening, the zoo in a press release said that post-mortem of the giraffe revealed that she died of “pneumonia”. It also said that the giraffe was being provided the necessary medical treatment since a week.
It said that the zoo’s veterinary team was supported by experts from Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) and College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar. The post-mortem was conducted by team headed by experts from state government’s Veterinary Biological and Research Institute (VBRI), LaCONES, and Zoo veterinarians.
However, the death due to pneumonia has raised suspicion as eight lions had tested positive for Covid-19 in the zoo and recovered, just this month. Bubli was brought to Hyderabad zoo in 2019 from Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, along with a male giraffe named Sunny.
The zoo is now left with only two male giraffes — Sunny, aged around 7 years and another giraffe named Tsunami Basant, which was brought to the Hyderabad zoo in 2009 and is aged around 16 years.