Farewell to "Raja"

the El Paso Zoo’s Malayan Tiger

El Paso, Texas – September 22 – "Most days at the Zoo are a celebration of life and its astonishing diversity, but today the zoo has lost a valuable and beloved member of our family,” reports Zoo Director Steve Marshall. “Raja’’ the El Paso Zoo’s 16-year-old male Malayan tiger was euthanized this morning.

Keepers noticed Raja the tiger’s appetite has been irregular for the last couple of weeks, and a few days ago noticed some swelling of his belly. Zoo veterinarian Dr. Victoria Milne and her staff were examining the tiger under anesthesia yesterday and confirmed that there was a large mass in his abdomen, most likely intestinal in origin. A surgery was planned for today to attempt to remove the mass. Unfortunately, the surgery confirmed that the cancerous mass could not be removed, and was beginning to spread to other surfaces in his abdomen. Dr. Milne, Zoo Veterinarian, said “We had to make the right decision for Raja. It was obvious that this process was not going to resolve with surgery and was only going to progress and make him feel very ill very quickly. At least we were able to cut that suffering short.”

Raja was 16-years old, which is geriatric for tigers. Problems like kidney failure, arthritis, and cancer do tend to increase in frequency with old age in cats, as in people and other animals.

Keepers had hoped that the mass would be removable so that Raja could recover. "The zoo keepers who work with Raja every day are suffering a terrible loss" said Animal Curator John Kiseda. “Over the years they developed an intense bond and this event really is traumatic.”

A full post mortem examination will be conducted on the tiger before cremation.

Raja’s Bio

Raja was born at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens on June 22, 1993. He arrived at El Paso Zoo on Aug 31 1995. He was a good natured cat, playful, with a good spirit. He was well loved and was one of the first 'major' animals to arrive for the Zoo's 'new' Asian animal section. He was recently reintroduced to Melor, who was also from Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Melor has been at the El Paso Zoo since February 4, 2001.

Malayan Tiger Facts

Panthera tigris jacksoni (Malayan Tiger) discovered in 2004 as the 9th subspecies of the tiger.

Description : Morphologically similar to the Indo-Chinese tiger, but the size is closer to the Sumatran tigers with average weight of 120 kg for adult males and 100 kg for females.

Distribution: The Malayan tiger is found only in the Malay Peninsula, southern tip of Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. Tigers are not found in East Malaysia ( Borneo ). In Malaysian, they are sparsely distributed from the northern transboundary forests contiguous to Thailand to the most southern tip of continental Asia.

Status in the wild : Since the late 1980s, at least 500 tigers are thought to remain in Malaysia, which has carrying capacity of 493 to1480 tigers based on available habitat with known presence of tigers.

Why Tigers Matter
Human welfare and economic development in Asia depends on the same clean water, clean air, natural flood controls and other forest resources that tigers need. Because tigers are poised at the top of the food chain, if we can maintain healthy tiger populations in Asia’s wild lands, we can ensure that there are healthy habitats and prey populations present to support them. Tigers need extensive, intact landscapes and act as an umbrella species — by saving tigers you save other plants and animals that share their range. Renowned ecologist E.O. Wilson eloquently captures the flip side of this coin: “Tigers…are predestined by their perch at the top of the food web to be big in size and sparse in numbers. They live on such a small portion of life’s available energy as always to skirt the edge of extinction, and they are the first to suffer when the ecosystem around them starts to erode.”

(Source: Save the Tiger Fund)