Peshawar Zoo loses its fourth giraffe

Peshawar Zoo lost its fourth giraffe in 2020 on Monday, just a few days after a black bear’s alleged death.

According to details, the male giraffe had been suffering from an intestinal infection for one week and was under treatment in the zoo. Zoo officials said that samples were collected from the dead body and sent to the National Veterinary Laboratory, Islamabad, and Veterinary Research Institute, Peshawar, for examination and to ascertain the exact cause of the death.

A three-year-old giraffe was earlier found dead in June, while the other two died in April and May.

“The earlier three died of shooting diarrhoea while this one now had a somewhat different cause of death,” stated Project Director of the Peshawar Zoo, Ishtiaq Wazir. “We had provided antibiotics to the giraffe but it did not recover,” added the official.

He further said that giraffes are fragile animals and the symptom of their disease appears at the time when preventive intervention cannot succeed in treating them.

Officials said the zoo was left with two female giraffes only.

Animal rights activists have been campaigning for the condition of animals kept in Peshawar zoo. A petition about issues of the Peshawar zoo, including animal deaths and qualification of staff members, especially veterinarians, is also pending with the Peshawar High Court.

Islamabad zoo shuts down after last animals moved

Meanwhile, Islamabad’s Marghazar Zoo — which drew international condemnation for its treatment of lonely elephant Kaavan — shut down on Wednesday after its final occupants Babloo and Suzie were relocated to Jordan.

The two Himalayan bears were the last to leave the Islamabad facility, almost three weeks after the country’s only Asian elephant was flown to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.

“The Islamabad zoo is now completely closed for both public and officials,” said Saleem Shaikh, a spokesman for Pakistan’s ministry of climate change.