An 18-year-old Bengal tiger at the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City has been euthanized due to age-related kidney failure.
Chronic kidney disease is a common cause of illness and death in geriatric felines including tigers that develops over a period of months or years. In a post on Facebook, zoo leaders wrote that for the last few weeks, the tiger, Stars, had been closely monitored and treated with medications by his keepers and the veterinary staff as his activity and appetite had slowed. The decision was made to euthanize him before his quality of life declined further.
The zoo says it is always a very emotional time for our staff with the loss of any animal, but they are happy knowing that Stars shared an important conservation message with thousands of zoo guests as he lived a very long and full life alongside his brother, Stripes.
Stars was born at a zoo in Iowa on Oct. 15, 2004, and had been at the Washington Park Zoo with his brother, Stripes since 2005.
The life span of tigers in the wild is usually between 10 and 15 years. In human care, or on rare occasions in the wild, a tiger can live up to 20 years.
2 comments
It’s so sad that this tiger had to be killed at 18 over kidney failure.
I get the conservation efforts that zoos attempt to accomplish due to many species being endangered. But it also seems like these animals are meant to be in the wild, not in a zoo. Many have their normal lifes activities altered by being put in controlled environments.