Indonesia’s infamous Surabaya Zoo, which has been coined the ‘Death Zoo’ because of the high fatality rate of its captive animal species in recent years from neglect and incorrect care, has claimed another life in the animal kingdom.
This time, the animal that fell was a critically endangered male Sumatran Tiger named Rama. There are thought to be as little as 400 of these animals still walking the Earth in the wild today, as the World Wildlife Fund notes, and now there is one less of the species living today.
The death, which occurred just last month, was blamed on heart failure, a natural cause of death that the zoo swears was not due to mistreatment. Rama had lived in the zoo for a solid 16 years prior to his passing.
“The death was due to natural causes, we provided the best care we could,” zoo spokeswoman Veronika Lanu said in a statement.
Nevertheless, knowing the zoo’s spotty record, you can imagine some people just aren’t buying it.
The Surabaya Zoo still has a grand total of 9 Sumatran Tigers in captivity, including three more males and six females.
Getting them to mate is like pulling teeth, but perhaps the zoo’s over-crowded and less-than-sanitary cages aren’t helping things any, as these factors have been known to create poor health conditions for the captive animals, later leading to illness or death.
The video below shows just how poor the conditions at the Surabaya Zoo has been known to be:
On the other hand, conditions have reportedly improved at the Surabaya Zoo after being taken over by the local government to clean things up.
Nevertheless, animals held captive there still continue to perish.
Source: Washington Post, Discovery News