With heavy and grateful hearts, we bid fond farewell to Rama who passed away this morning at the Portland Zoo.  On his Facebook page, the zoo reported:

This morning, our beloved Asian elephant Rama passed away peacefully in the care of our veterinary and animal management staff.

Rama had experienced a sharp decline in mobility in recent weeks, an issue stemming from a 25-year-old injury to his left front leg. The treatments that had been successful for many years were no longer easing his discomfort, and so — with sadness and compassion — our animal-care staff decided the most humane course of action was to euthanize him.

It is a sad day for all, and our hearts go out first and foremost to the keepers, animal-care staff and volunteers who knew Rama well — please keep them in your thoughts during this difficult time.  

31 Mar This entry was published on March 31, 2015 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.