KARACHI, Jan 9: Panic has gripped the Karachi Zoological Gardens where three deer mysteriously have died in a day while four other female animals have fallen ill, it emerged on Wednesday.

According to zoo officials, a female brown deer was found dead in its enclosure on Tuesday morning while two other animals, both females of white fallow and hog deer species, died within a few hours the same day.

Three white fallow deer and a hog deer, all females, are reportedly ill.

The enclosures of both hog and white deer species were situated close to each other and none of the animals were earlier reported sick.

“We are extremely concerned over these deaths as the post-mortem reports of all animals have shown signs of internal bleeding. Though we have administered medicines to the sick animals and they appear to be in an improved state now, the possibility that the disease might have spread to other animals is still there,” said zoo director Bashir Saddozai.

Samples from the dead animals, he said, had been sent to laboratory and results were expected on Thursday. Sick animals had been separated from their herds.

Mr Saddozai said the zoo had suffered a few deer deaths last year, too, between January and March, he added.

There are five hog deer and 10 white fallow deer at the facility. Of them, there are only three males — a hog deer and two white fallow deer. The reason for keeping males in small numbers has to do with their aggressiveness which, according to the zoo staff, often leads to fight among the animals and consequent injuries.

Five animals — a Shetland pony, a red deer, a leopard (all females), a male Chacma baboon and a nilgai — died in the zoo last October. A male Bengal tiger died in the following month. The deaths were largely blamed on ‘old age’ by zoo officials.

A hog deer, a small deer species, is listed as an endangered species in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red data list. Its habitat ranges from Pakistan, through northern India to mainland Southeast Asia.

A white fallow deer, mentioned as a species of Least Concern in the IUCN list, is a native to Eurasia but has been widely introduced in the world.