GUWAHATI, Dec 6 - One of the two striped hyenas recently brought from Ranchi�s Bhagwan Borsa Biological Park to the Assam State Zoo as part of an animal exchange programme, died today.
�The hyena was in critical care and it succumbed to stress-related ailments. He went into a coma two days back and died this morning. He was quarantined and kept under observation ever since it arrived here 10 days back,� Zoo DFO Tejas Mariswamy said.
Any new zoo inmate is kept in quarantine for at least 28 days. If they remain healthy after 28 days, it means they are infection-free and can be released in an enclosure.
Zoo officials said when an animal travels to a different place in a truck, it undergoes a lot of stress and becomes �very vulnerable to attack by infectious agents�.
The hyena was rescued from Jharkhand and kept at the Ranchi zoo.
The other hyena � a female of around one and half years of age � is doing well.
Apart from the pair of striped hyenas, a pair of ostriches, too, were brought from the Bhagwan Borsa Biological Park, Ranchi, as part of an exchange programme approved by the Central Zoo Authority.
The State Zoo gave away a male black panther and three leopard cats to the Ranchi zoo.
Recently, the State Zoo also got a few exotic birds from Darjeeling. Among them are pairs of the Lady Amherst�s pheasant, the golden pheasant and the silver pheasant. In return, the State is giving the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park of Darjeeling a male slow loris.