A mass grave of animals that died of illness and malnutrition has been found at a zoo in China, state media said yesterday, again throwing the spotlight on poor conditions in the country’s wildlife parks.
The discovery in Harbin comes just weeks after authorities in Shenyang said they were investigating a zoo where three-dozen animals had died, amid allegations of parts harvesting.
Workers at the Harbin Northern Forest Zoo dug the 3m deep pit last year to bury the dead animals, including lions, tigers and leopards, Xinhua news agency reported.
It was unclear exactly how many had died and over what period, but the report said the pit was believed to contain 30 to 40 carcasses.
Quoting statistics divulged by frustrated employees, the report said that in the first half of 2008, 14 animals — including endangered white tigers and white lions — had died from malnutrition.
Zhang Xinru (張昕茹), deputy head of the feeding department at the zoo, told Xinhua the establishment had decided to make changes to the animals’ food regimes in 2007 to save money.
Lions and tigers were fed chicken meat and bones to partly replace beef and lamb, and some keepers even gave the lions corn buns instead of meat, the report said.
When zoo officials realized the animals were dying, they changed the feeding pattern again but animals were still suffering from malnutrition, it said.
A zoo spokeswoman, who refused to be named, denied the report, saying the animals had died under normal circumstances of old age or illness. She refused to comment further.
China has more than 200 zoos, the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens said. However, only large zoos in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai receive government funding and attention, state media said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS