A female dhole at the National Zoological Park — informally known as the Delhi zoo — died on Wednesday, officials said, adding to the growing list of animal deaths at the zoo over the past few months. Officials said the cause of the latest death is still unknown, with a post mortem to be conducted soon.
The dhole, also known as wild dog, is a canid that is native to southeast Asia. While they live to an average age of 10-13 years in the wild, they can live for up to 16 years in captivity.
Officials said the animal that died on Wednesday, named Macchali, was nine years old, and was brought to the Capital from the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, Visakhapatnam in 2019 as part of an animal exchange programme.
“A female wild dog, Macchali, aged 9-plus years died on Wednesday. It was undergoing treatment. The post mortem will be conducted and samples will be sent to a lab,” said Delhi zoo director Sanjeet Kumar, adding that the range in-charge has been asked to submit a report.
The zoo now has one dhole left — a nine-year-old male.
The death of Macchali is at least the seventh such incident at the Delhi zoo in recent months — earlier, a 15-year-old female leopard named Babli died on February 26 due to old-age related complications. Babli’s death had followed two other old-age related deaths — a 22-year-old jaguar (February 19) and a 15-year-old nilgai (February 13).
In addition, a female Sangai deer died after a fight with a male counterpart on January 25; an 11-year-old one-horned rhinoceros died of acute haemorrhagic enteritis on January 2, while a nine-month-old white tiger cub died due to “traumatic shock and acute pneumonia” on December 28.
The Delhi zoo houses 95 species of animals and birds. Earlier in March, officials had announced that the zoological park will receive two smooth coated otters from Surat by the end of the month — an animal last house in the zoo in 2004. In addition, Delhi will also receive 10 star tortoises from the same zoo, and will send across five sangai deer, two blue-and-yellow macaws, and four green-cheeked conure the other way as part of an animal exchange programme.
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