SEATTLE — Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle has euthanized its last tiger, a 20-year-old female that had been dealing with kidney disease since 2007.
The zoo says the Sumatran tiger named JoJo arrived from Memphis Zoo in 2001 as a breeding companion for Rakata, who died in February at age 19. The pair had five cubs.
In Friday’s announcement, mammal curator Martin Ramirez praised JoJo’s “magestic beauty” and said she was a “superb mother to her cubs.”
The zoo said JoJo’s health had been declining for several months. The life expectancy of Sumatran tigers is 18 to 20 years in zoos and 15 years in the wild.
Woodland Park says all six tiger subspecies are endangered with as few as 3,000 to 3,900 tigers remaining in the wild.
The zoo plans to open a new, naturalistic exhibit complex in 2014 that will feature Malayan tigers as well as other animals and tropical birds.
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