BHUBANESWAR: An African lioness, aged 15, died of snake bite here at Nandankanan zoo on Saturday morning. The postmortem confirmed that the animal's blood had both neurotoxic and hemotoxic reaction after it was bitten by a krait.
Zoo authorities said Ganga was brought to the zoo from Israel in 2015 along with three others. Two of the imported lions had already died.
Zoo deputy director Sanjit Kumar said the animal didn't respond to the anti-venom as he had started convulsing because of severe neurological changes. "We tried to save it by administering three vials of anti-venom, but we failed. The snake must have bitten the animal long before we discovered it. The krait was also found near the enclosure," Kumar said.
The zoo now has a single African lion and seven hybrid ones. The zoo intends to bring a pair of African lion from Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad, apart from a one-horned rhino, a Royal Bengal tiger (white), stripped hyena, Chausingha, sarus crane, spoon bill, grey jungle fowl, iguana (a variety of lizard). In exchange, the Nandankanan zoo will give away a Royal Bengal tiger (normal), swamp deer, Siamese crocodile, Asian open bill stork, golden pheasant, jenday conure and sun conure, zoo authorities said.
