Zoo Atlanta
April 10, 2024
The Zoo Atlanta community is deeply saddened to share news of the passing of Chelsea, a 20-year-old female Sumatran tiger. The Veterinary and Animal Care Teams had been monitoring and treating the geriatric tigress for chronic health conditions, particularly kidney disease. As there was not a path to recovery for Chelsea, the teams made the difficult decision to euthanize her on April 10, 2024.
“This is a devastating loss for Chelsea’s care team and for Zoo Atlanta. Chelsea was a magnificent cat with a tremendous legacy here at the Zoo,” said Sam Rivera, DVM, Vice President of Animal Health. “While decisions like these are always heartbreaking and are never easy, our teams had reached a point where we knew that this was the most responsible and compassionate decision for Chelsea.”
Sumatran tigers, which tend to have a lifespan of 10 to 12 years in the wild, are considered geriatric in zoological settings after the age of about 15. At nearly 21, Chelsea was well beyond the typical lifespan for her species.
Chelsea had lived in Zoo Atlanta’s John P. Imlay Tiger Habitat since 2006. In 2011, she gave birth to cubs Sohni and Sanjiv – the first Sumatran tigers born at the Zoo in more than a decade. Both Sohni and Sanjiv now live at other Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited organizations and have both since had offspring of their own.
The Sumatran tiger is one of the world’s rarest tiger subspecies. Listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sumatran tigers are believed to number fewer than 400 in the wild on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They face serious pressures from habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, particularly as a result of deforestation for palm oil plantations, and illegal poaching for their skins and bones, which are believed by some cultures to have medicinal value….
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