Corona kills the most famous tiger in the world

Multimedia

8-01-2022, 17:20

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Baghdad-INA

Rilo, the famous snow leopard, whose pictures appeared in books and on the famous Empire State Building in New York, died after being infected with the emerging corona virus.

Before his death, images of the tiger Relo spread around the world like a movie star, as he was part of a set of photographs in the book "The Photo Ark", taken by the photographer collaborating with "National Geographic", Joel Sartore.

The snow leopard lived in the Oklahoma City Zoo until 2011, when he came to the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Indiana, where he gave birth to 7 cubs, bringing wide praise to the zoo, after making it "one of the world's leading institutions in the production of Snow leopard cubs.

The city officials announced that Rilo died after a weeks-long struggle with pneumonia caused by the Corona virus, at the age of 11.

"I love that Rillo's legacy will continue through the book 'The Photo Ark'," Zoo Director Jay Tetzloff said in a statement. "Rillo will amaze the world for many years to come.".

This came a day after the Cathofer Animal Building was again closed to the public, as the "big cats" there continued to show signs of the virus.

The building has already been closed before, after the big cats began showing symptoms of coronavirus in late November; It reopened to the public on December 22, before being closed "indefinitely", on Wednesday.

Titzloff explained that the closure is a "short-term precaution," adding that employees "hope to eventually vaccinate the carnivores and monkeys, at the zoo.".

But at the same time, he noted, "logistical challenges made this difficult."