Sedgwick County Zoo mourning the death of its tiger, who was ‘very easy to love’
Zookeepers at Sedgwick County Zoo are mourning the death of one of the zoo’s two tigers, who died on Sunday.
Talali, the 14-year-old Amur tiger that had been part of the zoo’s Slawson Family Tiger Trek exhibit since it opened in 2009, had been declining in health and had not been on exhibit for several months, said Jennica King, the zoo’s marketing and public relations manager.
Zookeepers had discovered a mass on her body and had been monitoring it, but her health quickly worsened.
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On Sunday, King said, the Talali began having trouble moving around in her stall and seemed confused. They decided to euthanize her that morning.
“They just determined that her quality of life was not good, and they didn’t want to keep her suffering,” King said.
Talali was one of only two tigers in the exhibit. The other was her daughter, Natasha, who was one of the twin cubs Talali gave birth to in 2013. Natasha’s brother, Tsar, was moved last year to a zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Talali’s keepers are taking her death particularly hard.
“She was very easy to love, and the keepers had a very close relationship with her,” King said. “It’s been difficult.”
Zoo tigers usually live to be between 16 and 18 years old, King said. A necropsy will be performed this week to determine what caused Talali’s decline.
Zoo officials don’t know when they might get another tiger — that decision is made based on a species survival plan — but they’re hopeful they will.
“There shouldn’t be anything keeping us from still continuing to be on the list to get a male tiger in the future to be able to breed with Natasha,” she said.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 10:28 AM.
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