Tigers in Indonesia zoo infected with Covid

Friday, 01 Aug, 2021 0

A pair of tigers at a Jakarta zoo are recovering after contracting Covid-19.

The two Sumatran tigers at Jakarta’s Ragunan Zoo were tested in mid-July after showing breathing difficulties and a loss of appetite and turned out positive.

They are both on the mend now, zoo officials said.

"Both animals are healthy now. Their appetite has returned to normal and they are active again," said Suzi Marsitawati, chief of Jakarta’s Parks and Forest Service.

The source of the infections is still a mystery.

"We traced all the nurses and zookeepers and at the time they were sick, nobody was infected with Covid-19," Marsitawati said.

The zoo has been closed during the pandemic and very few people on the zoo’s staff have had any physical contact with the big cats.

At the time of the tigers’ positive tests Indonesia was in the throes of daily record-breaking Covid cases surpassing 50,000 a day.

The Sumatran Tiger is the smallest of the tiger species and native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The species is classed as ‘critically endangered’ with just a few hundred thought to be left in the wild.

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