KARACHI: A young male Bactrian camel named Guddu suffering from a hump injury for months was found dead in its zoo enclosure on Friday morning.

It was born in the zoo less than two years ago and seen as the only hope for increasing the population of the endangered species in captivity. A calf and an adult male Bactrian camel had died a few years ago.

“The three-year-old male camel died of ruminal tympany (bloat), a life-threatening condition, which could be caused by a variety of reasons,” said assistant director of the zoo Dr Aamir Ismail, adding that the animal was otherwise healthy and the hump injury was not serious.

The surviving female Bactrian camel in the zoo is now the only one of its species left at any government-run facility for captive animals in the city.

She is the fifth addition to the number of mammals living without a mate at the zoo.

The others are: a zebra, a lion, a golden tabby tiger and a langur, all males.

Recalling the arrival of the Bactrian camel in the city, a senior veterinary doctor told Dawn that initially a pair was purchased and brought from Gilgit-Baltistan in the 1990s.

They gave birth to two calves which, after they had grown a little, were shifted to the zoo, he said, adding that the gestation period of the species was between 12 and 14 months.

“The Bactrian camel is classified as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species and is native to central Asia,” he said.

“We had a lot of problems when the first pair was brought in from the northern areas to Karachi, which gets very hot in summer. Luckily, the pair not only survived, but also gave birth to two calves,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014