Zoo Elephant Dies from Heart Disease

TYLER � A necropsy, an animal autopsy, has been performed by Caldwell Zoo veterinary and animal care staff on an elephant that died this week. Preliminary results show that Binti, a female African elephant, died from heart disease. The female elephant died Tuesday following a short illness. Binti was born in in South Africa in 1978 and arrived at the Tyler zoo by way of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago in 2000. She was the zoo’s only tuskless elephant, which is a not-so-common trait. It is believed around 38% are born without tusks, much higher than the estimated 1% in the 1930s. According to National Geographic, the average female African elephant’s lifespan born in the wild is 56 years and 17 years in captivity.