Malayan Tiger gets Artificial Hip

Malayan Tiger is one of the endangered species. The estimate is, there are only about 500 of them left in the wild. Their survival is at stake, as more and more jungles are being cut, leaving them with limited territories to hunt for their preys.

The star newspaper brought the story about a Malayan Tiger went through a surgery to replace the hip. I would not want to be the person to nurse the animal to recovery, as tiger can be dangerous if he is in bad mode.

The story from the star.

Sunday February 27, 2011

Malayan tiger in German zoo the first to get artificial hip

BERLIN: An eight-year-old Malayan female tiger in a German zoo has become the first tiger in the world to get an artificial hip.

The tigress, named Girl, who suffered from severe arthritis in her right hip, is recovering but veterinarians said it was too soon to determine if she was out of the woods.

The tigress, now in the Halle Zoo in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, underwent a complex three-hour surgery, performed recently by medical experts from the University of Leipzig.

A new start: Girl receiving an artificial hip at the veterinary clinic at the University of Leipzig, Germany, recently. Girl, who suffered from severe arthritis in her right hip, is recovering.

A representative of the university’s Veterinary Medicine Faculty told Bernama in a telephone interview that Girl received a prosthetic hip originally designed for dogs, with some modifications.

Dr Peter Boettcher, a member of the medical team that performed the surgery, is satisfied with the condition of the ‘patient’ but said that great care was needed in looking after the tigress as she now faced a high risk of hip dislocation.

Girl’s artificial hip was originally designed by Pierre Montavon, a professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in cooperation with the Swiss company, Kyon.

There are only about 500 such tigers left in the wild. Female Malayan tigers can live up to 20 years. Because Malayan tigers are considered an endangered species, there has been great public interest in Germany in Girl’s recovery.

This has also generated considerable public interest in Malaysia’s bountiful wildlife, an interest which even experts of Tourism Malaysia have been unable to evoke with their marketing and public relations strategies.

Leipzig Zoo has been supporting Malaysia’s Sumatran rhino project in Sabah. The zoo has signed an agreement with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research and the state government to provide assistance for protection of Sabah’s biodiversity.

The tri-partnership agreement will focus on promoting the reproduction of the Sabah rhinoceros — the dicerorhinus sumatrensis hamssoni — in its natural habitat.

With barely 50 of this rhinoceros species left in the wild, German conservationists have been calling for urgent action to save it.

Leipzig Zoo will be sending experienced animal caretakers to Sabah to gather first-hand experiences on the care of animals under human supervision. The zoo is also involved in the rhinoceros protection project. — Bernama