Lioness dies in Kankaria zoo

26-06-2010
Lioness dies in Kankaria zoo
Times of India
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The friendly lioness Okha, 18, at Kamla Nehru Zoological Garden in Kankaria who celebrated her birthday a week ago, died on Friday afternoon.

Okha was a hybrid breed of Asian-African lion family. She was one among the four cubs born in the zoo in 1992 to lion couple Shankar-Parvati.

On the death, zoo superintendent, RK Sahu said, "Okha was not keeping well and had stopped eating food. On her last day, she suffered massive seizure attacks. In the guidance of zoo doctors, Okha was given life-saving injections. She responded well."
Sahu added, "We started treatment under the guidance of experts from Anand Veterinary College. However, again on Friday afternoon, Okha started shaking rapidly and uncontrollably and later collapsed." Recollecting about Okha, Sahu said, "She was bottlefeeded after her mother died few days after giving birth. She was popular among kids and not very ferocious in nature."

The average life of lion is around 15-16 years. Okha's dead body has been sent to Anand Veterinary college for postmortem. "The preliminary report suggests death due to old age and mengatis, an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord," said Sahu.

The dead body will be cremated as per guidelines of Central Zoo Authority. At present, the zoo has one pair of Asiatic lions Ambaradi-Pooja and one African hybrid lion, Ganesh.