TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A plucky year-old Sumatran tiger cub who survived an intestinal blockage last fall has died after undergoing emergency surgery at a Tacoma zoo.
Point Defiance Zoo general curator Karen Goodrowe Beck said Mali died Friday evening after going into cardiac arrest. This time she could not be revived.
She was taken to surgery after showing signs of distress and a surgeon found her stomach full of undigested meat, which should have passed into her intestines.
Goodrowe Beck notes Mali nearly died last November after undergoing a similar emergency surgery and going into cardiac arrest. That time, zoo veterinarians were able to resuscitate her. A necropsy is planned.
Mali and her brother Bima were born at the zoo in May 2010. They celebrated their first birthday with “meatsicles.” Their parents also live at the zoo.
