The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute says it plans to say goodbye to Shera, a 21-year-old African lion who has lived on its Washington campus for 19 years, in early May. The decision comes after keepers and veterinarians saw her mobility worsen and concluded that her quality of life had changed too much to continue.
Shera was born in November 2004 at a private reserve in South Africa and arrived at the Great Cats exhibit in October 2006 with her late sister, Nababiep, and a young male, Luke. She has become one of the zoo’s best-known animals, a matriarch who raised eight cubs and helped shape a family line that now includes five niblings.
The zoo said the choice to euthanize an animal is never made lightly and is never handled by one person alone. Animal husbandry staff and veterinarians work together to judge an animal’s quality of life, and Shera has been watched closely for years. In recent attention, the focus has been on her mobility and her overall demeanor as she slowed down in advanced age.
That decline has become more visible in recent weeks, when she has been less sure-footed while moving through her enclosures. The zoo says Shera has osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that causes pain and stiffness, along with liver and kidney issues common in elderly lions. It said her arthritis is pretty severe, though it has been able to keep her pain levels low.
Shera’s long history with keepers is part of what makes the decision feel so final. For years she took part voluntarily in husbandry and medical training, including injections and blood draws, a routine that allowed staff to monitor her closely without forcing unnecessary stress. Now, the zoo said, it is coming to the end of her beautiful journey.
The timing leaves little room for ambiguity: Shera is among the two oldest living lions in Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited zoos, and the planned goodbye in early May marks the point where age and illness have overtaken the careful management that has kept her comfortable. For the people who have known her for nearly two decades, the question is no longer whether Shera has lived a full life. It is how gently that life will be brought to a close.
