The excessive attention of zoo visitors who persistently tapped on the glass of the reef shark’s aquarium cause her to scurry around, hurting her nose and eye, the Press Secretary of the Zoo Ekaterina Mikhailova told RIA Novosti.
“Our shark was not ready for such attention from the visitors and the persistent tapping of the aquarium glass,” she said. “By flopping in panic onto the glass walls of the aquarium, she first hit her nose and then one eye”.
Unfortunately, the wounds won’t heal while she remains in the tank because of the steady flow of visitors and constant attention. The employees were forced to close the aquarium to visitors until the inhabitant fully recovers. Additionally, they’ve started adding sedatives and antiseptics to the water.
Reef sharks can naturally grow up to 1.5 meters, but in captivity their size is limited by the size of the aquarium. This particular shark is slightly over half a meter in length.
A similar incident happened to another inhabitant of the same Zoo. Ignoring the posted restriction, visitors fed its seal frozen fish and afterwards the animal had to undergo treatment. The zoo employees have restricted access to the seal’s area on weekends and holidays.
Kaliningrad zoo is one of the oldest in Russia. It was founded by German entrepreneur Herman Claesson in 1896, when the city was part of Germany and was called Königsberg.
Currently, the zoo covers an area of 16.7 hectares. In the collection there are 2,000 animals from 302 species.
