A lioness in the Nandankanan zoo died of snakebite on Saturday.

Zoo officials said they found a venomous snake in the water body inside lioness Ganga’s enclosure.

Zoo deputy director Dr Sanjeet Kumar told The Telegraph: “African lioness Ganga, 15, who came from Israel in 2015, died on Saturday morning due to poisonous krait bite. In the morning, the animal keeper informed the authority about the abnormal behaviour of the lioness. A veterinary team reached the spot immediately for treatment.

“The doctors started anti-venom and other therapies but the blood had already turned thick and the animal died. A krait was found near the water body.”

During the post-mortem, conducted by the dean of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology and his team, signs of fang and other lesions on the internal organs of the lioness suggested death caused by snakebite, Kumar said.

With Ganga’s death, the number of lions in the zoo has come down to 16.