The Toronto Zoo says one of the two moose who reside at the zoo has died.
The zoo announced the death of Trilly, an 11-year-old moose who lived in the Canadian Domain, in an online post on Sunday.
Trilly was euthanized on Tuesday following “several months of decline,” the zoo said.
The long-time resident is said to have lived beyond the average life-expectancy of a moose under the care of humans.
“She had lost a lot of condition and had known arthritic changes in multiple limbs. Trilly was quite thin despite extensive efforts to increase her feed intake,” the zoo said, adding that a gross post-mortem performed on Wednesday has revealed the moose’s thin condition could have been due to malabsorption.
The zoo says additional test results are necessary to conclude the diagnosis.
“Moose are notoriously hard to feed in old age, and we are thankful ours have done much better than most moose in managed care settings,” the zoo said.
The animal reportedly had a ruptured tendon on her left hock, “which would have led to joint instability and caused the significant arthritis we knew she had in that joint,” the largest zoo in Canada said.
“Based on recent x-rays, we know there is arthritis in at least three out of four pasterns, as well as changes to one of her pedal bones — related to hoof abscess.”
Trilly didn’t shy away from showing off her “grumpy ears” if she wasn’t given what she wanted. She would also be “very protective” of her sister named Lily who she always looked out for.
The zoo says medicating Trilly was a difficult job but she would “voluntarily” engage in scale training to let zoo staff keep check on her weight.
The Toronto Zoo has been mourning the deaths of two other zoo animals since late July.
A two-year-old Masai giraffe named Matumaini died while under anesthesia during a surgical operation at the zoo.
Matumaini, also known as Matu, was under anesthesia while undergoing a castration procedure — to prevent him from breeding with his mother and sister, the zoo told the Star — when he stopped breathing.
A preliminary pathology report into the death of Matu found that “regurgitated and inhaled ruminal content” was the cause of the animal’s death.
“The most significant preliminary finding was that of stomach content in Matu’s lungs — a finding that explains the respiratory, then cardiac arrest that occurred,” the zoo’s post read.
A six-week old red panda cub died in an incubator in the Toronto Zoo’s intensive care unit on July 31.
The male cub, one of two unexpectedly born at the zoo in June, was brought to the facility’s wildlife health centre after a staff member noticed he was dehydrated, had a reduced appetite and felt cold to touch.
“We’ve known for a little while that this might happen for this little cub,” Masters said. “It would have been wonderful if both of the cubs had survived, but we weren’t always expecting that to be the case.”
Red pandas have a low offspring survival rate due to infections, such as distemper and pneumonia. According to the zoo, scientific studies show that as few as 40 per cent of red panda cubs reach their first birthday.
The Toronto Zoo says it will continue being “open and transparent” about its animal care including both births and deaths.
“We understand that learning about the loss of any animal can be difficult for our community, but we remain committed to honesty and transparency,” the zoo said. “With over 3,000 individual animals representing more than 250 species at the Toronto Zoo, it’s natural that we will experience losses.”
“When we lose an animal, it touches all of us.”
With files from Ilyas Hussein