A pregnant plains zebra housed at Pilikula Biological Park in Mangaluru lost her life in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday after a freak accident sent her into fatal shock, zoo officials confirmed. The unexpected tragedy jolted staff who arrived for the morning round to find the mare motionless inside the savannah enclosure, bleeding from internal injuries.
The zebra, christened Kavya, had been born on 4 April 2022 and was only months away from delivering her first foal. Preliminary observations indicate she galloped into a taut chain-link fence and struck the mesh at high speed, sustaining multiple blunt-force wounds that proved irreparable despite rapid veterinary intervention.
Keepers believe an external stressor may have sparked the frantic dash—either intensifying aggression from adjacent stallions or a nocturnal predator straying close to the paddock. Veterinarians later attributed the fatal outcome to capture myopathy, a stress-induced physiological collapse often recorded in wild ungulates that endure sudden fear or excessive exertion while confined.
Kavya’s untimely death has triggered an internal safety audit. Management is scrutinising barrier design, night-time patrol routines and perimeter lighting to reduce future disturbances. Additional behavioural enrichment and segregation measures for expectant females are under consideration, alongside plans to install motion sensors capable of detecting predators before they reach the stockade.
“Losing a young, expectant animal is heartbreaking,” a senior zoo official remarked, promising swift corrective action and extending condolences to the caretaking team that had raised Kavya since birth.
Read Also: