In good hands

“Judging by wild animals, everything could be considered geriatric. Everything is relative,” said Birmingham Zoo veterinarian Dr. Richard Sim. He’s referring to the many challenges that animals in the wild face: illness, in-fighting, starvation and hunting, to name a few.

“Us offering good care to our animals in human care is changing how long they can live,” he said.

The zoo has many animals that would be considered “geriatric” based on a general life expectancy for the animals in human care. Some, including their secretary bird, children’s python and emerald tree boa, are the oldest of their species in all of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited zoos across the country, and some are simply reaching their older years. 

One of the more notable elderly residents is 18-year-old Kumar, their Malayan tiger, whose average life expectancy under human care is between 18 and 20 years old. Others include Steve, a 34-year-old children’s python; Tadpole, a 38-year-old Nile hippopotamus; Dino, a 20-year-old yellow-backed duiker; Reynardo, a 27-year-old Hoffman’s two-toed sloth; and Ol’Greg, a “95ish”-year-old alligator snapping turtle.

Once animals reach their later years, fellow zoo veterinarian Dr. Stephanie McCain said they begin watching for problems with their teeth, signs of arthritis, sight challenges, kidney and cardiac issues and cancer, much like doctors do with people.

“As they get older, the likelihood increases,” she said. “It parallels humans. Humans are animals.”

McCain said while some animals may start to look like they are ill, they are actually just aging.

“From a visitor’s standpoint, Kumar is aging, and he is skinny,” Sim said.

McCain attributed this to less movement and a loss of muscle mass as well as just general aging.

“A lot of comments on Facebook have been, ‘Why don’t they feed the tiger?’ and obviously, that’s not the case,” she said.

But still, the animal staff provides great care for their animals.

“The zoo focuses a lot on getting animals to do their part in care,” McCain said.

Staff has worked with the animals to create certain behaviors to facilitate checkups, such as an “open mouth behavior,” to see their teeth, allowing access to tails to draw blood and “paws up” to check their feet and pads. This level of training helps reduce stress levels during exams.

“The open-mouth behavior took one of the lions a week, but Kumar still struggles with it,” McCain said.

“And the North American river otter can’t do it at all, but she’s trained to do echocardiograms awake,” Sim said. 

While all animals are well-trained, the husbandry behaviors are conducted with barriers between the staff and the animals for the safety of everyone involved, and if they found anything more serious, it is pursued as seen fit. Some of the geriatric animals are also on medication to manage their disorders, such as a few of the goats who are seen for arthritis and Toby, a 19-year-old ocelot, who is frequently checked for kidney disease, Sim said.

If a circumstance does arise when an animal needs a specific surgery or additional diagnosis testing, the zoo can perform certain procedures on site or can reach out to a network of local vet specialists, McCain said. And, it’s all for the care and well-being of their animals.

“A lot of the animals have been with the zoo for most of their lifetime,” Sim said. “We take care of them from birth to death; that’s our responsibility.”

Editor's note: This article was updated on Aug. 30 at 3:40 p.m. to reflect the correct spelling of Dr. Richard Sim's name.