Guwahati: A four-year-old giraffe was found dead in the Assam State Zoo Thursday night.
Divisional forest officer (in-charge) of the zoo, Ashwini Kumar, said: “Prima facie the case looks to be one of accidental death.” The officer added that the giraffe had died after being strangulated within the cage and the staff at the facility had been alerted immediately.
An investigation has been ordered by state forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya and a report is likely to be submitted within the next three days.
Ashwini Kumar told ThePrint, “During the night somehow she got entangled into something and was strangulated. The giraffe had been kept in that enclosure for the last two years. It wasn’t that we had introduced it to a new cage.”
The official, however, did not disclose more details about the circumstances of the animal’s death since it is now “in the domain of the investigation team”. The cages, he said, were standard size as had been approved by the Central Zoo Authority.
The giraffe named Rongili had been brought to the facility in December 2019 from Patna zoo.
Suklabaidya had in 2019 tweeted when Rongili was being brought to the zoo. “It will again be part of the Zoo after a long gap of 8 years.. The female giraffe is coming from @PatnaZoo under an animal exchange programme approved by Central Zoo Authority, New Delhi,” he had said.
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