KARACHI: City’s two major facilities for captive animals — Karachi Zoological Gardens and Safari Park — have recently seen major additions that were made officially possible without spending a single penny, it emerged on Wednesday.

Sources said four big cats — a pair of lions and another of pumas — were brought to the zoo in a truck late afternoon a few days back. One of the pumas, however, was found dead on arrival in its cage.

The sources said the animals were later released in their separate zoo cages and the zoo staff preserved the puma’s body without carrying out a post-mortem examination.

At Safari Park, the sources said, a pair of lions was recently shifted to the facility in a similar manner. All the animals, they said, were between the age of eight and 10 years.

Speaking to Dawn, a senior zoo official said that the animals were ‘gifted’ to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) facilities by a private zoo being run at a housing scheme.

“Apparently, the private zoo was finding it difficult to feed and manage growing numbers of its big cats. Hence, it gifted some of its old animals to us,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

He added that the animals were healthy.

About the puma’s death, he said it’s difficult to say anything about the exact cause since the zoo didn’t carry out an autopsy. “It seems that proper safety measures were not in place during transportation that resulted in its death,” he said.

The sources expressed surprise over KMC’s move to accept the ‘gifts’ given its long-standing financial liabilities. The continued failure to pay off its feed contractors over the years had resulted in accumulation of liabilities of Rs100 million, they said.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

IHK resolution
Updated 08 Nov, 2024

IHK resolution

If the BJP administration were to listen to Kashmiris, it could pave the way for the resumption of the political process in IHK.
Climate realities
08 Nov, 2024

Climate realities

THE Air Quality Index in Lahore once again shot past the 1,000-level mark on Wednesday morning, registering at an...
Rule by fear
08 Nov, 2024

Rule by fear

THE abduction of an opposition MNA, as claimed by PTI, is yet another grim episode in Pakistan’s ongoing crisis of...
Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...