Animal Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

Spirit of Peace, a rare white bison calf born prematurely in
the North Peace region of British Columbia, died on June 1, 2005
after he refused to eat, rancher Karen Blatz said. Blatz had been
bottle-feeding him, and took him to a veterinarian for antibiotic
treatment, to no avail.

Angela, 23, a diabetic chimpanzee, was euthanized on May
19 at the Belfast Zoo, due to a chronic painful leg condition.

Asiad Appu, 27, an elephant who was crippled as an infant
by falling into a septic tank at Palakkad, India, died on May 14 in
Punnathurkotta, India. A playful nature caused Appu, then called
Kuttinarayanan, to be designated celebrity mascot of the 1982
Second Asian Games by the late Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv
Gandhi, both prime ministers of India who were eventually
assassinated.

Big Al, a wandering moufflon sheep, was on May 26, 2005
killed by a car on Interstate 43 near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. A variety
native to the Mediterranean, Big Al wandered into town without
explanation in late 2004, and had hung around there ever since.

Ikaika and Lehua, two squirrel monkeys who spent much of
their lives in a glass enclosure at the Blue Tropix nightclub in
Honolulu, died separately in April 2005, less than three months
after they were retired to the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo in Hilo.

Nyssa, a one-year-old female wolf who in 2004 was introduced
into the same enclosure at the International Wolf Center in Ely,
Minnesota as two late adolescent Arctic wolves, was attacked and
killed by the Arctic wolves on May 12, soon after she was returned
to the pack following spaying.

Churchill, 18, a polar bear born in 1980 at the Henry
Doorly Zoo in Omaha, died on May 26 at the St. Louis Zoo, during
surgery to remove accumulated plastic trash bags and artices of
clothing from his stomach.

Honi, 27, a South American sea lion, believed to be among
the oldest of his species, died on May 25 at the Valley Zoo in
Edmonton, Alberta.

Tony, 44, a hippopotamus born at the Jackson Zoo in
Mississippi, who had lived at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans since
1964, died on May 17. Rosebud, his mate for 16 years, died in
1989 at age 19 from an apparent complication of birthing. Their
baby, Duffy, died six days later from refusing to eat.

Karoo, a nine-month-old koala whose infancy was a top draw
at the River-banks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina, was found dead
of an unknown cause on the floor of the koala exhibit when the zoo
opened on May 23. The first koala born at the River-banks Zoo,
Karoo had weaned successfully, and had begun to occasionally make
brief forays away from the side of his mother, Lottie.

Kitty, 18, a male African lion who was notorious for
roaring at motorcycles, whose rumbling he mistook for territorial
challenges, died in his sleep from cancer on May 6 at the NEW Zoo in
Green Bay, Wisconsin.