Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Female giraffe at zoo dies

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The lone female giraffe at the city zoo, Moly, was found dead inside its enclosure on Friday morning.

Zoo authorities attributed the death to heart failure; the animal was 31 years old. The post-mortem was conducted by a team of officials from the office of the Chief Disease Investigation Officer, Palode. Zoo director Elcy George said the maximum reported age of giraffes in captivity was 29.

Following the post-mortem examination, the animal’s skin was removed for taxidermy procedures and subsequent display at the natural history museum.

The animal’s skeleton was buried in a particular manner to enable ‘articulation’ or display of the skeleton at a later date, zoo vet Jayakumar said.

Moly was brought to the zoo from Sudan in 1979. A male giraffe that was being brought along with Moly was electrocuted in transit. The zoo is now left with a male giraffe, Raja, who was brought over from Mysore in 2002. Raja is now eight years old.

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