Sakkarbaug Zoo: Lioness escapes, caged after 5 hrs. Asiatic Lioness mother eats her cub

15-6-2007

Sakkarbaug Zoo: Lioness escapes, caged after 5 hrs

Ahmedabad Newsline By: Sibte Husain Bukhari

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=241204

 

Junagadh, June 14: A LIONESS that escaped from its display cage at the Sakkarbaug Zoo here on Thursday was caged by officials but not before the animal injured an animal keeper and created panic among people in the surrounding human locality. Though there were visitors in the zoo, none was injured by the animal. The lioness that escaped around 10:30 am was caged at 3:00 pm.

 

Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Bharat Pathak confirmed the incident. ‘’No visitor was injured, only an animal keeper received some minor injury and scratches. The incident occurred may be due to the keeper’s mistake. An inquiry has been ordered,’’ he said. The injured animal keeper, Ramu Chauhan, was admitted to Junagadh Civil Hospital.

 

In a separate incident, a lioness killed and ate a lion cub while another cub was saved by forest officials in Gir. The incident occurred on Wednesday at Karamdadi round in Dalkhania forest range falling under Gir-East forest division.

 

According to officials, forest staff during saw a lioness eating a lion cub. They prevented the lioness from eating the rest of the carcass. The cub was about three months old. The foresters also found another lion cub hiding nearby.

 

Deputy Conservator of Forest (Gir-East) V G Rana said that a panel of doctors had conducted the post mortem on the lion cub_ only one leg of it had been recovered while the rest of the body had been eaten up by the lioness. “Four claws of a leg have been recovered so far,” he said.

 

The cub that was rescued was also about three months old. But it was found to be weak. After preliminary treatment in Gir, it was shifted to the Sakkarbaugh Zoo Hospital. Said Rana: “Eating cub is a common phenomena among Asiatic lions. It is not known whether the preyed cub was its own or belonged to another lioness.”