Mercedes the polar bear of Edinburgh Zoo
Mercedes, the 30 year old polar bear at Edinburgh Zoo has been put down after suffering from health problems.
Mercedes had advanced osteoarthritis. She was treated with painkillers earlier. The zoo announced today the sad news. The zookeepers were sad that they had put her to sleep due to her age related health problems.
Mercedes was from Canada but was taken to Scotland in 1984. In the Edinburgh Zoo, Mercedes had a partner named Barney. She reared two cubs named Minty and Ohoto. She was well loved and just like Knut was one of the famous polar bears of the world...just that she lived long and a happy life.
Later on, it was observed that Mercedes showed signs of mental confusion as she aged. As her health worsened, the vets suggested it was better to humanely euthanise her. The medications were no longer helping to sooth her pain in the arthritic joints also. She was quite distressed in the last week that led to mental confusion.
The zoo is very sad with this decision because Mercedes was a special bear for so many years. Her postmortem will be done to study her conditions in detail.
It is said that in captivity polar bears live up to 25-29 years while in the wild they survive for a max 20 years.
Looking at Mercedes' life, she lived well and long amongst loving zoo keepers. She reminded me of Knut the polar bear of Berlin Zoo, who on the other hand died so young and was mostly used all his life as a means of making big revenue.
