Sindhu the lioness dies a week after her long-time companion
Grief isn’t an emotion one would readily associate with
a wild beast. But it seems to have claimed the life of one of the city
zoo’s oldest residents. Sindhu, a 21-year-old lioness, died on Tuesday
morning – a week after her long-time companion Seena died of multiple
organ failure.
Physically, there was nothing to
suggest that Sindhu’s life was in immediate danger. In fact, her body
was described as ‘stout’ and resilient. But the suffering and eventual
death of Seena had a profound psychological impact on her companion.
Sindhu’s
sleep patterns had been erratic over the past week. She lost her
appetite and barely ate the first couple of days since Seena’s death.
The cameras installed inside the lioness’ enclosure relayed images of
the animal ceaselessly pacing to and fro.
The
keepers and the zoo veterinarian tried all they could to make her
comfortable including feeding her meat removed of bones and medication
that would help her sleep. But she was severely depressed.
By
Monday, she was weak and could barely lift her head. Zoo vet Jacob
Alexander said that her breathing grew laboured and she was beginning to
suffer cardiac problems. She breathed her last at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.
For
big cats, 21 is a very advanced age considering that their life
expectancy hovers around the 15 years mark in the wild. Age-related
ailments caused Sindhu to limp and her teeth to fall out, but that is as
far as her physical symptoms went. The autopsy showed that the animal
did have cysts on her ovaries that had metastasized to her liver. These
growths were not out of the ordinary, Dr. Alexander said.
“Because of the amount of red meat they eat in their lifetime, it is
expected to find such growths in felines’ system when they become very
old. In fact, we were stunned not to find any growths in Seena’s body
when we did her autopsy last week,” he said.
The two lionesses were born in the zoo and are separated only by three months. They share the same father.
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