KARACHI: The zoo has lost its last surviving member of the tiger family, it emerged on Friday.

Sources said that the old Bengal tigress died on Thursday after remaining seriously ill for some time. The facility is now left with two lionesses, a lion and a pair of lions.

“She was one of the oldest members of the zoo family. In recent weeks, she had developed multiple health complications,” a zoo official said, adding that the big cat was provided the much-needed treatment, but she couldn’t recover.

“In recent months, we were able to save an old lioness whose condition had deteriorated to an extent that we thought it would die,” he said.

The zoo director wasn’t available for comments.

The sources said the Bengal tigress had a solitary existence for a long time. Other members of the zoo tiger family, including an imported pair and a male big cat brought in from Lahore through an animal exchange programme, died over the years.

The sources shared that while the zoo had kept several pairs of Bengal tigers in different times, the facility had never seen a birth in the species in decades.

“The lions’ case was a bit different. There had been a few births in this species but the babies either couldn’t survive or went missing,” shared a zoo official on the condition of anonymity, hoping that the cubs recently born to a zoo lioness would survive.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

Electricity relief
Updated 05 Apr, 2025

Electricity relief

If govt ensures that requisite power reforms are implemented, it will earn much praise for reforming a vital segment of the economy.
Trump’s trade wars
Updated 05 Apr, 2025

Trump’s trade wars

Shoddy math applied by US to indiscriminately penalise its trading partners signals the end of an era of global trade liberalisation.
Legalised land grab
05 Apr, 2025

Legalised land grab

THE Modi government has passed a new bill targeting the Muslim community, this time eyeing swathes of priceless real...
More than words
Updated 04 Apr, 2025

More than words

Holistic development can only work when there is organic and credible political activity in the province.
Poor publicity
04 Apr, 2025

Poor publicity

FORTUNE does not seem to be favouring the PTI — at least not yet. With the party’s founder confined from public...
Party pooper
04 Apr, 2025

Party pooper

INDIA’s role of a spoilsport is tiresome. From pulling books from shelves, such as Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: ...