Bengal tigress at Karachi Zoo breathes its last

KARACHI: A Bengal tigress kept in Karachi Zoo passed away last week, Geo News learnt on Saturday.

Confirming that the tigress "died a week ago", the zoo administration said that the animal passed away after a prolonged illness.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) officials said the big cat was 30 years old and passed away due to natural causes.

They also added that the Bengal Tigers' average life span is between 18 to 20 years.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Royal Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) are found in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and generally live anywhere between 14 to 16 years in the wild.

The death comes over a year after 17-year-old African elephant "Noor Jehan" lost her battle against blood parasite disease and died at the Karachi Zoo after years in captivity in April last year.

Commenting on the big cat's death, Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) Co-founder Mahera Omar said that animals in captivity generally don't live as long as animals in the wild.

They are more vulnerable to diseases due to being confined, she said speaking with Geo.tv.

"Big cats kept in captivity suffer from zoochosis — a form of psychosis involving unnatural behaviour such as pacing back and forth, biting the cage bars, excessive licking etc," added Omar.

However, she noted that such behaviour is not limited to the family of cats; in fact, it has been seen affecting wolves, bears and other animals as well.

Captivity takes a physical and mental toll on wild animals as their behavioural, psychological and social needs are not met which shortens their lifespan.

"A caged animal is not a happy animal [....] They [caged animals] are all miserable," remarked the PAWS official while lamenting the poor conditions of the cages at the Karachi Zoo.

Stressing the need to establish wildlife sanctuaries, Omar said: "We need to think about phasing out our zoos as there are other ways to teach children about wild animals in this age of information".

The animal rights and well-being advocate added that there is no need to lock up animals in such a "cruel manner" because nobody learns anything from it.

"An animal's life ends the moment it is put in captivity," said Omar.