Leela was sedated for the exam. (Source: Maira Ansari, WAVE 3 News)LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - It's a rare opportunity to see an amazing creature up close! Staff at the Louisville Zoo performed a regularly scheduled preventive health care procedure on one their tigers on Wednesday.
The exam was performed on Leela, a Sumatran tiger. She was born at the zoo on April 17, 2004. She is on exhibit in the Islands in rotation with Sparky, a male Sumatran Tiger.
WAVE 3 News was invited to watch Leela's exam. Exams such as hers help keep the zoo animals healthy. In many cases, they extend the animals' life expectancy considerably.
A full health exam includes physical exams, electrocardiograms, blood and urine collection, vaccinations, a dental exam and any special needs. "We deal with a lot of old animals and those animals live a long time in the zoo," Zoli Gyimesi, a senior staff veterinarian at the Louisville Zoo, said. "Because of that we see a lot of old aged disease, see a lot of arthritis, cancer, dental disease."
Carnivores and primates alternate years for preventive health checkups.
Veterinarians also performed an ultrasound on Leela. She is in her prime and the goal is for her to become a mother. "She has been paired with our male and we are not having any reproductive success, unfortunately, and we've been recommended to get a different male," Jane Anne Franklin, curator of mammals and animal training supervisor at the Louisville Zoo, said.
Sumatran tigers are critically endangered. There are only approximately 80 of them left in North America and about 400 of them on the island of Sumatra."Habitat loss is the number one reason," Franklin said. "Rain forest being destroyed and that's where these cats live."
That's why keeping tigers like Leela healthy and alive is so important. Leela is 11 years old and weighs 190 pounds.
source
wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather
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