Ostrich dies at Dhaka Zoo
The female out of the lone pair of ostriches at Dhaka National Zoo died yesterday, after suffering from an “unknown disease" for seven days.
Qazi Fazlul Haque, curator of the zoo confirmed the death of the ostrich, a large flightless bird native to Africa. He however could not name the disease or condition from which the bird was suffering.
A zoo source however said that the bird had not died from any illness but from an internal injury suffered in an accident.
The source said that the zoo authorities suspected that a Rhea bird, held in the very next cage to the ostriches' one, was suffering from Bird Flu. In order to prevent spread of the disease, the authorities made an external bamboo fence boundary outside the Rhea's cage, which took up space from the ostriches' one.
According to the source, the female ostrich was about to lay an egg and panicked when her cage shrank. She ran havoc within the reduced space and injured herself on the bamboo fence.
"The egg inside the bird's abdomen broke," said the source working with the zoo.
Following this incident, the ostrich was suffering from dehydration and was not taking food, the source added.
Meanwhile zoo authorities have said that they had the Rhea bird had died due to cold and not of Bird Flu as they had initially suspected.
The zoo authorities have carried out an autopsy of the ostrich but details of report could not be known immediately.
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