World’s oldest Royal Bengal tiger dies at 26

Risingbd Desk, KANPUR, Jan 17: Guddu, 26, said to be world’s oldest living tiger in a captive environment, was given a tearful adieu here on Thursday.

The Royal Bengal tiger, who had been brought to the Kanpur Zoo in 2001 from Chandigarh when he was 13, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday night.

“His death has come as a shock for us. We were planning to seek Guddu`s entry in the Guinness World Records, as the male tiger was said to be the oldest surviving wild cat in the world,” said a Kanpur zoo staff.
“Guddu had given up food four days back. Worried over his health, we shifted him to the zoo hospital, but he did not respond to the treatment,” he added.

Kanpur zoo director K Thomas said that veterinarians at the zoo had put him on vitamins and boneless meat as he had lost all his teeth. While the average life span of a tiger varies between 14 and 16 years, Guddu lived on for over 26 years, according to records available with the zoo, Thomas said.

 

Before Guddu, Ramu held the record of being the oldest surviving tiger. He died at Jaipur Zoo at 24 in September 2010.

 

“Following its death, the zoo is left with five tigers, including two tiger cubs. Guddu was brought here from the Chandigarh Zoo in 2001 under an exchange programme,” said Thomas.

On Thursday morning, a panel of four doctors, including RK Singh and UC Srivastava, superintendent of Divisional Veterinary Lab Nirmal Verma and veterinary officer of Etawah Lion Safari Kuldeep Dwivedi conducted autopsy on Guddu. He was later cremated in presence of the entire zoo staff who bid it a tearful adieu.

 

Source: The Times of India

 

risingbd/mukul