KARACHI: Set to face an inquiry soon after Eid into the recent death of a puma cub, the city zoo is reported to have lost a macaw over a month ago, sources told Dawn on Sunday.

It is the fourth reported death of an animal within seven weeks at the facility led by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

The large brightly coloured parrot died from injuries following a collision with an iron grill of its cage, they said.

“The bird was in its nest with its mate and two chicks when suddenly it got frightened on seeing the staff trying to fix an iron net on the enclosure.

“It flew straight into the grill and fell, receiving fatal injuries in the collision,” a zoo staff said, adding that the enclosure was being secured to prevent the chicks from flying out.

A recent visit to the zoo showed that the two chicks were being fed by their mother alone and the male macaw was nowhere to be seen. A zoo staff member, on condition of anonymity, said the bird had died and that the administration was trying to bring in a “replacement”.

Zoo director Fahim Khan, however, described the information about the macaw’s death as false and insisted that the bird was alive.

“The male macaw has temporarily been separated from the chicks lest it might harm them. You can see it tomorrow if you plan to visit the facility,” he said, when contacted later on the phone.

He took pride in the fact that the facility had witnessed a birth in the macaw pair for the first time in many years.

Three puma cubs have recently died at the zoo; the staff blamed one death on malnutrition, the other on tetanus while the third cub that accidentally fell into the enclosure of adult pumas was reportedly mauled to death. This year has also seen the deaths of a Bengal tiger (the third death of a big cat within five years) and five black bucks.

Sources add that a green-winged macaw donated to the zoo suffered a similar fate in 2013 when, after being shifted to a smaller cage from a larger enclosure, it attempted to fly but collided with the cage’s iron grille.

More inquiries the same year revealed that 15 large birds, all of them donations, have died at the zoo. These include a Moluccan cockatoo, eight owls, a pair of king parrots, a cassowary and a martial eagle.

‘Male macaws good father’

The zoo administration’s argument that the male macaw had been kept away from the family on the grounds that it may harm the chicks was rejected by some parrot breeders who said that a macaw father, like many other male bird species, was caring towards its offspring.

“It actually feed the chicks. Both the mother and the father take turns in looking after the babies,” said Abdul Wahid, a seasoned macaw breeder.

Proper feed and a right-sized enclosure, he pointed out, played an important role in breeding macaws. “Captive species easily breed. Their feed should include all kinds of nuts, vegetables, seasonal fruits and a good mixture of grains. Poor feed hampers breeding.”

Captive macaw species, he said, start breeding as early as at five years of age and can at times live to a hundred years.

Mohammad Zafar Siddiqi, a caretaker at a parrot farm, also seconded the view that macaw parents shouldn’t be disturbed while they raise their family.

“Captive breed are very friendly and can easily be tamed,” he said.

‘Zoo needs to be depoliticised’

Meanwhile, wildlife experts have criticised the increasing number of mortalities at the zoo, calling upon the government to come to the rescue of hundreds of animals whose life, they said, was at stake due to the staff’s incompetency.

“The zoo will continue to see more deaths and injuries unless the government decides to bring revolutionary administrative changes and depoliticise the facility by recruiting technical people with relevant experience,” said wildlife ecologist Dr Syed Ghalib Ali, who is member of the (Karachi) zoo advisory committee and has also worked with World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan.

The Lahore zoo, in his opinion, was being successfully run and the government should follow its example by setting up an independent zoo management committee comprising wildlife experts.

“Unfortunately, there is a dearth of technical people at the Karachi zoo. The few employees who have some technical background have been working in the same grade and scale for a long time and seem to have no motivation in improving their skills,” he observed.

In addition, there was no concept of providing technical training to the staff either, he lamented.

On the lack of technical expertise, a major concern of experts was linked to the post of director, which for many years, was being filled by people who neither had the academic qualifications nor experience of animal life, sources said.

The KMC administrator was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2016