KARACHI, Nov 6: Male chimpanzee Romeo that had been seriously ill for weeks was found dead in its zoo enclosure on Wednesday morning, sources told Dawn.

This is the second death at the zoo within a fortnight. Last month a female bear, an Asian species (Ursus thibetanus), was reported to have died from multiple health problems including paralysis.

“Romeo had been suffering from a severe infection for at least two weeks. A post-mortem examination of the body showed that the animal had malignant growth on its right ear,” said zoo assistant director Dr Aamir Ismail.

He said autopsy samples had also been sent to a laboratory for proper diagnosis of the disease. “The report will be available within 12 days,” he added.

According to Dr Ismail, the post-mortem had been conducted by a panel of vets including senior nature conservationist Dr A.A. Qureshi and Dr Kazim Hussain who is currently serving at the Safari park.

These doctors had also been consulted for the chimp’s treatment, he told Dawn.

“It’s only a coincidence that two animals have died within two weeks. There is no negligence involved in any case. We have all resources to feed and treat animals and tried our best to save the chimp’s life but unfortunately it couldn’t survive,” said Dr Ismail while rejecting some reports that the zoo was unable to properly feed and treat animals on account of funds shortage.

Zoo director Fahim Khan said: “The chimp was 25 years old and was brought to the zoo when it was only two years old.”

Sources said that the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) had to endure a lot of pain during his last days, as zoo vets were unable to diagnose the disease he had been suffering from and kept him on different antibiotics for at least two weeks.

During a recent visit to the zoo, the poor animal was found to be dull, lying helplessly on the cage floor as its female played around.

The pair lived together for at least eight years.

Though the male belonged to the zoo, the female was handed over to the zoo after being caught by police in an operation. The female along with a male chimp had escaped from a home in PECHS over a decade ago.

“The male chimp had to be killed when it grabbed one police official while the female — which was named Juliet by the zoo and Bibi by her owner — was brought to the zoo,” said a senior zoo staffer.

According to the information available on the net, chimps are threatened species and listed under the Appendix 1 of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) and Class A under the African Convention. They are protected by law in most countries.

These intelligent primates live in a variety of environments in western and central Africa. Major threat to population is habitat destruction and degradation, poaching and disease.

Chimpanzees reach puberty at an age between eight and 10 years and rarely live past the age of 40 in the wild, but known to live a longer life in captivity.