A gharial and an ostrich housed in Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park, popularly known as Chhatbir Zoo, died in the past 72 hours, officials said on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old gharial died due to natural causes on Sunday, while the ostrich died due to infighting on Monday.
Zoo field director M Sudhagar said that the female gharial was suffering from kidney and liver infections and was under treatment. Gharials generally have a life span of 40 years to 60 years. The two-year-old female ostrich was attacked by a male ostrich late in the night in a suspected mating resistance. According to the postmortem report, the bird suffered grievous injuries in the lower neck. Zookeepers found her dead in the morning, he said.
Gharial being schedule-I animal has been cremated in an incinerator as per the protocol and ostrich falling under the exotic birds’ category was buried.
With the deaths, the zoo is now left with three grown gharials apart from 18 others which were hatched at the zoo four years ago. The gharial who died was brought under the animal exchange programme from Madhya Pradesh Zoo in 1992. Now, the zoo has three ostriches left.