Paignton Zoo tiger dies

Shakira was zoo's last tiger - for now

The last tiger at Paignton Zoo has died.

Female Sumatran tiger Shakira was 18 years of age - very elderly for a big cat - and the zoo says her age had started to catch up with her in the past few weeks.

The sad news is balanced by happier times ahead. Two young tigers are due to arrive in Devon shortly. 

Announcing the news on its Facebook page, Paignton Zoo said: "Shakira was on a lot of medication for deteriorating health and the difficult but kindest decision was made by our animal care teams to put her to sleep.

"Born at Berlin Tierpark in July 2002, Shakira arrived at Paignton in 2014 to be paired with late male Fabi, as part of the breeding programme for this Critically Endangered species. As she was hand-reared, Shakira was a very lively, people-orientated tiger and was easy to spot with her wide-eyed, beautiful face. She will be greatly missed.

"We are aware that Shakira’s passing means that we currently do not have any tigers at the zoo, as young tiger Lucu moved to Edinburgh Zoo last month as part of the European Endangered Species breeding programme. The positive news is that we can confirm that we will continue to house Sumatran tigers, as two young female tigers will be joining us – please keep an eye on our social media channels for updates coming soon! 🐯

We can also share that there will be some changes with our resident lions, siblings Arya and Yali; we will update you when we have confirmed more of our plans."