A rare white tiger in an Indian zoo died after it was bitten by a black cobra, which had hidden itself inside its enclosure without the knowledge of the zookeepers.
When the zookeepers at the Kamala Nehru Zoo in Indore, Hyderabad, went to check on two-year-old tiger Rajan on Saturday morning, they found the tiger unconscious and bleeding from the nose and foaming at the mouth.
Rajan had reportedly only been in the zoo for a month as part of a breeding program for the rare white tigers.
The zookeepers called vets to attend Rajan on an emergency basis, but he was declared dead once they arrived. A post mortem examination revealed a poisonous snake bite as a cause of death.
Zoo officials believe that the snake found its way into the tiger’s enclosure and the two animals began to fight. The snake then bit the tiger, unleashing its venom, which killed it.
AOL reported that the black cobra was also injured in the fight and has been left paralysed, with animal experts battling to save it.
The zoo’s director, Uttam Yadav, told the Hindustan Times : “It appears that the tiger had a fight with the snake and died after the snake bit the big cat. We found an injured cobra inside of the tiger’s cage. When we checked on the tiger it was unconscious. I assume the tiger and cobra had a fight in which the cobra would have bitten and killed the tiger.”
As a result of the incident, Dr. Yadav added that the zoo was now putting measures in place to ensure that snakes are not able to enter the tiger enclosure .”As part of precautionary measures, the authority will put thin wire mesh across all the cages, build trenches and put board at some part of cages to block the entry of crawling animals inside the cages,” he said.
