KARACHI: One of the three puma cubs born at Karachi zoo early this month has died, it emerged on Sunday. According to sources, the cub was found dead in its den three days ago.

It’s the third death of a puma cub in more than a year at the zoo.

“The staff searched for the missing cub when it noticed that only two cubs accompany their mother when she comes out of her den for a while,” zoo director Fahim Khan said.

According to him, the baby died of malnutrition because the mother was not feeding it well.

“The malnutrition factor has also been verified by a post-mortem examination. In fact, the two other cubs were also found very weak before the zoo staff started to feed them thrice daily on the advice of a senior veterinarian who is on the zoo panel of experts,” he explained.

Though a new experience, taking care of the little pumas is what keeping some zoo staff busy all day. They start the feeding process after shifting the mother to another section where she gets her food. And once feeding is done, babies are caressed and allowed to roam around in the sun.

“Their initial response was fear, but now they are getting used to the staff presence, while they also learn about their behaviour,” said Mr Khan, hoping that the pumas would not only survive but would also breed.

It may be recalled that the zoo lost two puma cubs within two months of their birth in December, 2014.

The animal, also called mountain lion, catamount or cougar is the largest wildcat in North America. Pumas are threatened by extensive habitat loss and fragmentation through their range, as well poaching of some of their prey species.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2016