Faced with the problem of prolific breeding, 49 spotted deer and 37 sambar deer were vasectomised in the zoo here even as three sambars and one spotted deer died after the surgery.
The zoo had a total of 75 sambars and 110 spotted deer, which was higer than the permissible number, Zoo Director C S Yalaki told PTI.
Three sambars died after they were operated upon while the spotted deer succumbed to injury it suffered when it jumped up after being given tranquiliser shot ahead of the operation.
"Fast breeding of deer had been a problem faced by the zoo. When the number goes up the enclosures would become dirty and the animals would wallow in their excreta," Yalaki said. There was a recent direction from the Central Zoo Authority that the number of sambars and deer in a zoo should be limited to 20 each.
The veterinary surgeons were often reluctant to perform the surgery on deer as the process involved some mortality risk. This was not because of the flaw in the process but these animals often get easily excited making it a hard task to perform the surgery, the official said.