Zoo authorities in hot water as ‘birds’ excretion’ kills 6 deer

The authorities of Karachi Zoo are finding themselves in troubled waters as a mysterious disease has claimed the lives of six female deer during the last few days.
According to official sources, the zoo authorities were shaken by the outbreak of the deadly virus, what an insider claimed was generated by the piles of excretion of birds which were nested in the zoo’s trees.
The postmortem reports revealed that the animals had died of internal bleeding.
Unwary of local watchdog institutions, the authorities at Karachi Zoo were said to be more concerned about the reaction of international conservation agencies like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Sources said that President Asif Zardari had found himself in a deep trouble in August last year when four lion cubs were found dead inside their cage under mysterious circumstances.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, globally recognized to be the world’s strongest champion of wildlife conservation, had telephoned President Zardari to express concern over the death of the lion cubs, the sources added.
They recalled that the president had constituted a committee under his sister, Member National Assembly Faryal Talpur, to ascertain facts about the mysterious demise of the lion cubs. “That matter was handled on the level of President House,” the sources confided to Pakistan Today.
The authorities of Karachi Zoo apprehended that the recent death of six female deer, including white fallow and hog species, was also expected to ring alarm bells among the international conservationists and the animal rights groups who would again put pressure on them for something they could not stop as part of the natural process. “Hundreds of animals have also given birth in the zoo apart from the ones that died,” zoo Director Bashir Sadozai told Pakistan Today.
According to detail provided to this reporter, during 2012 some 55 animals, including 15 deer of different species, were born in Karachi Zoo. The zoo data showed that the year in review saw the birth of four white fallow deer, three black bucks, eight fallow deer, one hog deer, two spotted deer, four nilgais, one bactrim camel, four peacock chicks, 20 graylag gooses and eight spurthi tortoises. “Almost all of the newly born animals have survived,” claimed the deputy director of the zoo.
Director Sadozai argued that the zoo was an entertainment point and not an animal breeding farm where a perfect natural environment would prevail for the animals which were in fact “imprisoned” in their enclosures. “Breeding in captivity can never be up to the mark,” he said.
WHAT CAUSED DEATH OF SIX DEER: It was anyone’s guess regarding the death of six deer that were believed to have died of internal bleeding.
According to an insider at Karachi zoo, the spread of deadly virus had been caused by the excretory waste of the birds nested inside the zoo premises. He said piles of excretory waste could be spotted throughout the zoo, especially on the “Zebra Line”.
The zoo authorities were said to be weighing various options ranging from sprinkling “choona” (powdered white stone) in the cages to chopping the affected trees off. Shifting of the affected animals was another option the zoo officials were mulling over.
Internal sources said the zoo director having ordered 4 to 5 bags of “choona” was unwilling to carry out the cutting the trees. “This would adversely impact the beauty of the zoo,” Sadozai was quoted as saying.
The shifting of animals was also an option which was less likely to be materialised because of the shortage of space available in the zoo. Furthermore, the authorities were also finding it hard to carry out the troublesome shifting process that would start with making the targeted animals unconscious by injections and would conclude with shifting of the heavyweight animals into other cages. However, Sadozai was reported to have said that he had shifted some of the affected animals to other cages on a temporary basis.