KARACHI: Karachi Zoo has lost its last remaining member of the tiger family, as it emerged on Friday that the old Bengal tigress passed away on Thursday after being seriously ill for some time. The zoo is now left with two lionesses, a lion, and a pair of lions.
According to a zoo official, the tigress was one of the oldest members of the zoo’s animal collection and had developed multiple health complications in recent weeks. Despite receiving necessary treatment, the big cat could not recover.
“In recent months, we were able to save an old lioness whose condition was so severe that we feared she might die,” the official added.
The zoo director was unavailable for comment on the matter.
Sources revealed that the Bengal tigress had lived in isolation for a long period. Other members of the zoo’s tiger family, including an imported pair and a male tiger acquired from Lahore through an animal exchange program, have died over the years.
While the zoo has housed several Bengal tiger pairs over the decades, there has not been a single birth of the species at the facility.
“The situation with the lions has been slightly different. There have been a few births in the past, but the cubs either did not survive or mysteriously disappeared,” a zoo official stated anonymously, expressing hope that the cubs recently born to a zoo lioness would survive.
