KARACHI: The city zoo lost another puma cub, aged a little over a month, leaving the facility with only one baby of the big cat species, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

To be exact, the cub was 38 days old. It’s the second death in the puma triplets born at the zoo early last month.

“It was 100 per cent fit till Monday, taking its feed properly. It was only a day earlier that we found it a bit ill and took it to Dr Isma Gheewala, who told us that the baby might have developed tetanus,” said assistant director of the zoo Dr Aamir Ismail, adding that the senior vet had been examining the babies since their birth.

Answering a question, he said the cub’s body had stiffened and it developed breathing problem with spasms, which led the vet to suspect that the cub had got tetanus.

According to sources, though a post-mortem examination was conducted, no blood or tissue sample examination was carried out to confirm the disease.

They also blamed the absence of qualified staff at the zoo as the reason behind frequent zoo mortalities, especially of newborns.

“Toxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium tetani cause tetanus. This bacterium is found in the soil and gut of animals and the disease starts when the organism enters wounded or damaged tissue as a result of contamination,” said a vet on the condition of anonymity.

On the cub’s death, he said blood and tissue samples should have been examined and the route of infection determined.

More than a week ago, the zoo reported a puma cub death which the staff blamed on ‘malnutrition’. The staff initiated feeding the babies on the advice of a vet.

Earlier, the zoo saw two puma cub deaths in 2014. In April this year, five male black bucks died in what the zoo described as a ‘mutual fight’. The zoo now has three adult pumas besides the surviving baby.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2016