HYDERABAD, Dec 16: Death on Tuesday of the third deer over 20 days reportedly from severe cold after the Rani Bagh zoo was opened for public after completion of major renovation work has exposed the management’s failure to keep animals warm in their cages during winter.

The latest casualty, according to the zoo in-charge Dr. Manzoor Bhutt, is a local female deer, which died probably from sever cold in the wake of recent rains. She followed another local deer, which died before Eidul Azha.

An Australian white fallow became the first casualty in the zoo whose body had been sent to Tandojam’s veterinary laboratory for post mortem.

Mr Bhutt said that the university’s medical report did hint at any disease or any kind of abnormality that might have caused the death. “Its spleen, heart, lungs and kidney were in perfect condition and no bacterial presence was found the body,” he said.

Zoo goers believe that cages in the zoo are not up to the mark and they fail keep animals warm in severe cold. They live in wide open cages, which have rooms with four walls and windows mostly without any roof, leaving the animals to bear the major brunt of cold, they say.

“The third female might have died from cold because Rani Bagh’s area is very wide open and lets animals hit directly by cold breeze even inside the cages,” said Mr Bhutt, who faces likely replacement over the animals’ deaths.

He said that the cages’ doors were covered with tarpaulin and gunny bags to save animals from severe cold.