It would appear that one of the several Bengal Tigers in captivity up in the Peña Escrita mountain park has died.

The governing party has made no comment, but the main opposition party, the PA (Benavides) certainly has, putting the death down to “the park’s state of abandonment and lack of maintenance.”

I did to speak to councillor-in-charge Luis Aragón a few months back, which was the last time that the PA complained about animal deaths in the park and his comment was, “What’s the point in responding to him [Benavides]” He said that animals invariably die; because of age, ill health and a variety of other causes.

But whether these deaths are “natural” or the result of neglect, the point remains the larger exotic animals shouldn’t even be there in the first place and Almuñécar has received hefty fines for running an illegal zoo in the past.

The present municipal administration has been trying to get zoos across the country to accept the larger beasts: camels, hippos, tigers and lions, and turn the park back to a normal mountain park packed with Iberian mountain-dwellings, wild animals, such as goats, dear, wolves and bears.

Whatever the case, when one of these exotic and spectacular wild animals dies, it is always a very sad occasion.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)