Expert: Zoo tiger was fortunate to survive as long as he did

Taiga ‘could have died at any time’

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Taiga, Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium’s oldest male Amur tiger who died suddenly on Aug. 31 from complications from a hernia, may have been living on borrowed time for much of his life, a leading tiger expert says.

Douglas Armstrong, the veterinary adviser to the American Zoos & Aquariums’ tiger species survival plan, said Taiga’s intestines — which the zoo said had slid into his chest cavity through a hernia in his diaphragm — could have been sliding in and out of the hernia at times through his entire life.

“He could have died at almost any time,” said Dr. Armstrong, who also is the director of animal health at the Omaha Zoo. “This cat had just been lucky.”

Despite the prominence of Taiga, 18, as one of the zoo’s most famous residents — he sired four cubs among two litters at the zoo during his seven years here — when he died on Aug. 31, the zoo shared very little information with reporters when it announced his unexpected death twodays later.

But zoo spokeswoman Tracy Gray shared additional details this past week with the Post-Gazetteabout what led to his death.

She would not respond to specific questions about the exact time that the events occurred on Aug.31 — which was the day after the zoo euthanized a baby elephant because of its deteriorating health.

Because one of Taiga’s two dewclaws — the two claws on a tiger’sfront legs that function like a human thumb and sit further up the leg than the other four claws — had begun to grow into a foot pad, he was scheduled to have bothdewclaws trimmed.

Jennifer Mattive, co-owner of T&D Cats, a big cat rescue reserve in Penns Creek, Pa., that has one Amur tiger and several other tigers, said dewclaws can cause big problems if left untrimmed.

“With large cats, as they get older, they walk differently and they don’t wear the dewclaws down,”she said. “If you don’t trim them, they grow into their pads and cause a lot of infection that causesillness.”

To do Taiga’s dewclaw trim, he was anesthetized some time in the morning on Aug. 31.

Ms. Gray noted in an email that “as in humans, there is always a risk when anesthesia is administered. Taiga never previously had a negative response to anesthesia and was considered a low-riskcat” for problems.

Taiga was last examined in December 2016, and showed “absolutely no signs of any problems, all his organs