Roar back as aging tigress on the mend

By Balakoteswara Rao
HYDERABAD: An old and infirm tigress that was rescued and shifted to Sri Venkateswara Zoo at Tirupati, after being found on the brink of death due to starvation, is now on the mend.
The starving tigress, believed to be of 16-17 years, was trapped near Naglutygudem, a Chenchu tribal hamlet in Atmakur mandal of Kurnool district on July 17 and shifted to the zoo the next day amidst hopes that it would recover.
“I was surprised to hear it roar two days ago. When she was brought here, she could barely stand and was very quiet,” zoo curator R Yesoda Bai told TOI on Wednesday. The animal keepers have named the old tigress Devaki, meaning the divine one.
Now, gaining strength from regular feeding and care being given by the zoo staff, the tigress has begun reacting to the presence of people near her cage. “Other than the keeper who feeds her, she shows impatience at anybody else’s approach,” Yesoda Bai said.
The tigress is currently lodged in a cage in the quarantine section of the zoo. She is feeding regularly and also pacing in the cage every now and then. “She is clearly getting her strength back. We hope that in about a month, she will get stronger. A small wound on her tail is also on the mend and we hope that it will heal completely in about 10 days. Just 11 days after she was brought here, despite her delicate condition and age, the tigress has shown signs of remarkable improvement,” Yesoda Bai added.
When it was rescued, the tigress was nothing but a bundle of bones with little hope of survival if released back to the forest. Normally a healthy adult tigress weighs 200 to 250 kilos, but she was tottering at 70 kg.
It is not common for a tigress to survive in the wild as long as Devaki since their normal life span does not exceed 12-13 years. As they grow older, they face competition from younger males and females that drive them out of their territories. Once an old tiger becomes ‘homeless’, it also loses out on animals it can prey as forest patches with good herbivore population is prized among predators.