Three National Zoo Animals Die After Anesthesia

By Carolyn Shanahan | Nov 06 2009 | Metro Briefs |

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park announced Wednesday that its oldest male sloth bear, Merlin, died while recovering from routine surgery.

Merlin, who was born at the National Zoo in December 1981, underwent a routine physical on Monday, according to the zoo’s press release. Zoo veterinarians subsequently operated on him to repair a twisted spleen, and he was kept under close observation for the next two days.

Although Merlin initially appeared to be recovering normally, the effects of anesthesia lingered longer than expected, according to the press release. Preliminary post-mortem blood work pointed to circulatory shock and renal failure as possibly contributing to Merlin’s death. An autopsy has been performed, and more definitive results will be available within a few weeks.

Merlin is the third National Zoo animal to die in the past month. The Zoo Press Office reported that on Oct. 14, a 16-year-old male scimitar-horned oryx died at the zoo’s Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va. On Oct. 24, another oryx, a female, died at the National Zoo’s main Rock Creek campus.

As with the sloth bear, both oryx deaths followed adverse reactions to anesthesia. The male oryx suffered heart failure while being anesthetized for a physical exam. The female also received anesthesia for a health exam. According to the zoo’s report, she seemed agitated after the exam. The next day, she lost the ability to use her hind legs, and died soon after.

All three of the deceased animals belong to species with limited global populations. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the sloth bear as vulnerable on its Red List of Threatened Species. The Washington Post cited zoo officials who estimated that between 6,000 to 11,000 sloth bears remain in the wild.

Scimitar-horned oryx numbers are more limited in numbers. Extinct in the wild, they can only be found in zoos, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums estimates that there are less than 2,000 worldwide.

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