An Elizabeth Taylor never really grows old, but lesser mortals do. So while Shanti, a Royal Bengal tigress, is frisking with her young paramour, white tigress Reeta ' just over than a year older ' is counting her last days at Tata Steel Zoological Park, Jamshedpur.
Saddled with degenerative joint disease, a progressive geriatric affliction that has caused "posterior paralysis", the immobile tigress is a shadow of her former self inside a small cage at the zoo's veterinary clinic.
Born on January 15, 1998, at Aurangabad Zoo, of parents Pramod and Bhanupriya, of a litter of a brother and three sisters, Reeta came to Tata zoo only in December 2010. Her sisters Seeta and Geeta went to a zoo in Indore in 2008, again as adults, while brother Ramu continues to stay in Aurangabad.
Family history apart, Reeta behaved like a staid spinster aunt, as Shanti grabbed the limelight ' and young tiger Raghav's attention ' these 13 or 14 months of her stay here.
But her placid behaviour coupled with striking good looks made her a top draw.
Zoo authorities said the paralysis led to disuse atrophy of both the pelvic and thigh muscle. "This means that she will now never be able to stand up on her four legs. She has been moved from her enclosure to the zoo hospital quarantine cell and is under intensive care. Medical attention will go on till her heart continues to beat. The average life span of big cats is around 15 years," said zoo director Bipul Chakravarty.
Zoo authorities celebrated her birthday on January 15, when she stepped into her 15th year, not really knowing that it might be her swan song.
"She was diagnosed with the joint disease on January 26 when a team of veterinary doctors from Alipore Zoo, Calcutta, and Bengal's department of animal husbandry, led by Dr Swapan Ghosh, came to examine her. We had invited the team to help us in big cat management. They took X-rays of her, which confirmed the disease," the zoo director added.
Reeta's transfer to the Tata animal enclosure could happen on the intervention of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), as the Aurangabad one was unable to meet the welfare requirement of its captive tigers. The apex outfit immediately directed the Aurangabad zoo to reduce the number of tigers by transferring them to other habitats. Tata zoo placed a proposal before the CZA in July 2010 to get a white tiger from Aurangabad, which it received in October.
Two months later, Reeta was to become the Great White Craze among Jamshedpur residents.
But she was already past her prime.
Tata zoo is losing tigers due to natural causes with alarming frequency. Shanti's parents Ben and Shyamali died in 2009 and 2011, respectively, while her 39-day-old male cub, passed away due to weakness earlier in January.
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