LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Zoo has said goodbye to one of its most recognizable and popular animals this week.
Heran, a 16-year-old Sumatran tiger, passed away on Feb. 7 after a long battle with B-cell lymphoma and leukemia, a type of blood cancer.
"The difficult decision was made to humanely euthanize the male tiger," a spokesperson for the zoo said.
Heran was recognizable by guests due to his missing eye, which gave him a permanent "winking" appearance. When he came to Louisville from the Illinois Miller Park Zoo in 2017, he was diagnosed with glaucoma in his right eye.
The decision was made by veterinarians to surgically replace the eye with a silicone orbital implant, which Heran recovered from perfectly.
Sumatran tigers are the smallest subspecies of tigers, the zoo said, with only about 75 tigers in zoos across North America.
Despite attempted pairings, Heran did not have any cubs. However, zoo medical staff are hopeful the animal ambassador's legacy will live on.
To preserve Heran's genetic value, the Sumatran Tiger Species Survival Plan recommended semen collection and gamete rescue as part of the euthanasia plan.
"The priority is to do right by the animal in providing compassionate end-of-life care," Dr. Zoli Gyimesi, senior staff veterinarian, said. "But if we can also do what is right for the population that Heran represented as an ambassador, that's our responsibility as well."
Gyimesi said the zoo is hopeful that the samples collected will allow Heran to have cubs in the future.
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