ISLAMABAD, July 1: Islamabad Zoo is developing a terrible reputation for animal care due to neglect and carelessness, and more animals have died in the past two months than in the entire year due to various reasons.

The most recent victim was a fragile Uryal fawn, which died on Sunday morning (June 30).

The handlers were trying to catch the fawn two days before its death in order to shift it to another cage.

However, during the attempt, the handlers broke its leg and the fawn fell ill. It could not recover from the illness and died as a result.

According to zoo officials, one of the worst incident of animal deaths occurred less than two months ago when jackals or foxes somehow managed to enter the enclosure of exotic ducks. They killed more than 60 birds and injured nearly a dozen more.

“It was a massacre. The teals and mallards (exotic migratory ducks) were all killed in a single night,” said one caretaker at the zoo, who was unable to explain how the wild foxes or jackals entered the zoo premises and get inside the enclosure.

The night watchman was suspended for dereliction of duty.

Besides losing a fox and a jackal due to weakness and neglect less than two weeks ago, the Islamabad Zoo also lost a Nilgai.

“The Nilgai died purely because of human error. It was being shifted to an empty animal enclosure but the handlers did not ensure the safety of the animal. Consequently, it slipped into a pond inside its new home, which was supposed to be empty. Before vets could figure out whether or not the Nilgai had hurt its neck or back, the animal died two days later,” said another handler at the zoo.

Similarly, a beautiful Vervet monkey native to Africa also died in the past two months.

“The animals often suffered poor living conditions such as the accumulation of filth, rotten food lying around and the stench,” said a source at the zoo, stating that neglect had taken its toll on the animals. According to the zoo official, a pair of Vervet monkeys today would cost Rs250,000.

However, reasons for some deaths were never given, and Zoo Supervisor Fayaz Mustafa declined to comment on why animals were not being cared for properly.

The zoo is not doing so well with its animal exchange programme either.

In an effort to increase the ostrich population at the zoo, the management had bought a female ostrich for breeding purposes while two male ostriches were already present.

However, the seller had tricked the management into buying a male ostrich at Rs20,000 instead of the normal Rs12,000. The zoo now has three male ostriches.

Worst still, the management, in addition to the Rs20,000 for the male ostrich, gave a beautiful pair of Blackbuck antelopes to the seller for his private zoo in Shah Allah Dita, Islamabad. The zoo had acquired these antelopes from Bahawalpur, which cost roughly Rs180,000 today.

“Stealing and selling eggs of exotic birds (ducks and pheasants) has been going on for years despite the knowledge of top officials at the zoo and the Capital Development Authority (CDA),” a source in the zoo said. A senior official of CDA, Ihsan Mangi, who recently took charge as member environment, said he was aware of a few events that had happened in the past such as the death of the Nilgai and the killing of exotic birds.

“We have not seen other complaints yet. However, the Zoo Advisory Committee, which includes members from the civil society and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) representatives, has been notified to make the environment in the cages less depressive for animals,” Ihsan Mangi said, adding that he would be visiting Islamabad Zoo next week for a better understanding of its problems.

Director Islamabad Zoo, Irfan Niazi had earlier said that better enclosures were being built to provide the natural settings for the animals as the restricted environments deprived animals of their mental and physical stimuli.