People Question Where Zoo Negara Donations Went After "Skinny" Lion Image Goes Viral

On Thursday, 11 June, Twitter user @f4izalhassan shared an image taken by @zlkha_z along with a caption, "Pray for our skinny lion. This big cat was once the king of his land".

During the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March, Zoo Negara started initiatives urging the public to donate funds to maintain operational costs and the animals' well-being.

Being a non-governmental organisation (NGO) operated by the Malaysian Zoological Society, Zoo Negara relies on donations and ticket sales to cover its operating costs.

As a result, large crowds of visitors immediately flocked to the national zoo to support it during its financial struggles.

One Twitter user found that there was no trace of Zoo Negara's annual reports on its website.

Meanwhile, another person shared how this has been an ongoing issue since 2003.

Since then, a petition has been created requesting for Zoo Negara to be investigated by SPRM for multiple reasons, including the lack of transparency in its annual reports.

At the time of writing, it has received over 9,700 signatures.

Based on an interview by Nadia Zaman, a journalist from Bernama, Rosly shared that they were lacking meat and had switched the lion's diet to chicken, but the animal is not interested in it.

According to a tweet by Nadia, Rosly explained that the 15-year-old lion, whose name is Manja Kani, may look thin but is still healthy. 

A quick check on Google reveals that Asiatic lions tend to look slightly smaller than African lions.

Those in captivity with an average body mass of 100kg consume 6% of their total body mass.