Beloved Point Defiance Zoo resident, Suki the elephant, euthanized due to failing health

One of Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium‘s oldest residents, Suki the elephant, was euthanized Aug. 10 after a “steady decline” in her health over the past few weeks.

Suki was an Asian elephant with the Tacoma Zoo for nearly three decades. She was the last surviving elephant at the zoo.

“We lost a special member of our zoo family yesterday and our staff and community are grieving,” Zoo Director Alan Varsik said. “Suki’s long life says a lot about the high quality of care she received over the 28 years that Point Defiance Zoo was her home.”

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According to the zoo, Suki had been showing signs of discomfort and cognitive decline, something Karen Wolf, the zoo’s head veterinarian, believed was indicative of a stroke or other neurological disease. Suki was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2019 and had chronic arthritis and uterine tumors, similar to fibroids.

“As you can imagine, it’s like losing a pet, or a close family friend, a co-worker or family member,” Point Defiance Zoo General Curator Malia Somerville told KIRO Newsradio. “It’s really hard to replace that feeling, so everyone will be going through their own grieving process and getting to say goodbye to her in their own way. It’s a loss we will feel for a really long time.”

Despite the chronic illnesses, Suki almost lived to 60 years old — the life expectancy of a female Asian elephant under human care is approximately 48 years. Suki even outlived some of the staff members who took care of her at the zoo.

“She’s well past the median life expectancy for elephants, which is in the late forties,” Somerville said. “So we knew that she was a geriatric animal and we were preparing for her last days whenever it might come.

Suki was formerly a circus elephant, and was described as “very smart” with a “big personality.”

“Even up to her last days her personality really showed through,” Somerville said. “She really closely bonded and connected with the people that cared for her and she was a really clear communicator. So you always knew what she wanted.

“She would roll around in the sand,” she added. “She would get in the pool when she wanted to. She trumpeted and vocalized a lot.”

“She loved eating watermelon and banana leaves, splashing in her pools, and getting her tongue gently scratched,” Elephant Manager Shannon Smith said. “She was an extraordinary animal and will be deeply missed by everyone who knew her.”

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Asian elephants are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, according to Point Defiance Zoo, due to poaching, habitat loss and other human-animal conflicts, causing a devastating population decline.

“Suki was a really great ambassador for all elephants, particularly Asian elephants, whose population is declining. There are fewer than 30,000 left in the world,” Somerville said. “What we try to do here is awaken a connection with the wildlife that are here. We hope that everyone that got to see and meet and know Suki will know how important elephants are and take steps in their own actions to help preserve them and their habitats.”

Point Defiance Zoo is an active partner in global efforts to protect Asian and African elephants. With Suki being the last elephant in the enclosure, the zoo is in the middle of its planning stage to decide what to do with the facilities and space she called home.

Contributing: Tom Hutyler, KIRO Newsradio

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.