The tiger, Tholpetty 17 at the city zoo.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A 10-year-old male tiger captured from Wayanad last month reached the city zoo in the State capital on Sunday.
The tiger, Tholpetty 17, joins two Bengal tigers and two white tigers at the zoo. One of them Babitha, a female tiger, had been brought from Wayanad in March this year.
The tiger has been put up in a special quarantine cage at the zoo hospital. He will be shifted to an ordinary enclosure after it completes 21 days of quarantine.
A preliminary examination of the big cat has not revealed any serious health issues. He is eating food and showing signs of normal activity. As he has just completed a long journey, the zoo authorities do not want to stress him any further. Blood and other tests will be conducted after a couple of days to get a clear assessment of his health.
Tholpetty 17 has a number of maggot wounds, but these are treatable, zoo veterinary surgeon Nikesh Kiran said. These wounds are believed to have been sustained in a territorial fight with another tiger.
The tiger was captured on June 23 night from a human settlement at Kenichira under the Chethalayath forest range of the South Wayanad Forest Division after it reportedly killed four heads of cattle in the area.
Though the Forest and Wildlife department has an animal hospice and palliative care unit for big cats at Kuppadi near Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad, it was full and hence the tiger was moved to the forest station at Irulam. It remained there for a fortnight.
There were plans to shift the tiger to the lion safari park at Neyyar but the dearth of medical care facilities there had stalled the move. It was then decided to shift the animal to the Thiruvananthapuram zoo for detailed medical investigation and treatment.
