11-Year-Old Female Hyena Found Dead at Delhi Zoo

An 11-year-old female hyena was found dead in her enclosure at the Delhi Zoo on Thursday morning.

October 17, 2025 04:40 PM IST

1 min read

An 11-year-old female hyena was found dead in her burrow at Delhi Zoo, with the cause yet to be determined.

The zoo remains closed since August due to an avian influenza outbreak.

An 11-year-old female hyena was found dead in her enclosure at the Delhi Zoo on Thursday (October 16) morning, a senior zoo official said. The circumstances in which the hyena died were not clear immediately.

The zoo has been closed to visitors since August 30 following an outbreak of avian influenza.

“The hyena died all of a sudden in a burrow on Thursday, after being released in the arena on the 14th [of October],” the official said. The animal was not seen during these two days, and was found dead during a routine check on Thursday morning, the official said.

Zoo Director Dr Sanjeet Kumar told PTI that the “reason for the death is still not known”.

With the death of the female hyena, the Delhi Zoo is now left with only two of the animals, a male and a female. The Delhi Zoo’s lone African elephant Shankar, aged around 30 years, recently died after acute cardiac failure.

From the homepage