At Hyderabad’s sprawling Nehru Zoological Park, Saina and Bahubali, two of the eight Asiatic lions who tested positive for the SARS CoV-2 virus last month, are slowly returning to their former perky selves. “We are once again seeing glimpses of their everyday personalities. All eight are, in fact, doing much better,” says Siddhanand Kukrety, zoo director and curator. Not very different from humans infected with the virus, the big cats too had lost their appetite and were dull and lethargic. It was in late April, when the zookeepers noticed a nasal discharge in the lions housed in the Lion Safari Enclosures. The samples were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad. It was a nervous time because this became only the second zoo in the world in 2020 after New York’s Bronx Zoo, to have its animals test positive for the virus. The Wildlife Conservation Society that runs the NYC facility said in a statement that a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia along with her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions all developed dry cough. 

A bio-security bubble has been created for the animals, especially tigers and leopards, at Borivli’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park, with only zoo keepers allowed in. Camera traps help authorities monitor their behaviour. So far, they say, no animal has exhibited symptoms. Pics/Getty Images