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TOKYO: Three lions at a Tokyo zoo have died from suspected heatstroke and others are under treatment, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday, with the big cats struggling with high humidity.
Japan sweltered through its hottest summer on record last year and parts of the country have hit 40C in recent weeks, qualifying for the new designation “cruelly hot day”, with thousands of people hospitalised.
Ten of the 16 lions in Tama Zoological Park have suffered symptoms such as “loss of appetite and decreased activity” since mid-July, and three lionesses died, the zoo said in a statement.
One three-year-old female died on Tuesday, another aged 11 died on Friday, and the third on Sunday aged 15. The Tama Zoological Park said the lion enclosure, where visitors can normally be driven around in zebra-pattern “safari” buses, was closed to the public until further notice.
