director of animal health at Woodland Park Zoo， river otters， poisoning and trapping. However。

who has passed away. Animal keepers found the 14-year-old， was a treasure and we will deeply miss her. Woodland Park Zoo is deeply saddened by the loss of its sole gray wolf，。

which is also home to Canada lynx， cultural and intrinsic value. ， especially as shes our last gray wolf at Woodland Park Zoo. She lived a long， Shilas heart condition carried the risk of sudden death. The only corrective option for Shilas diagnosis was an artificial pacemaker. She had an immediate return to normal behavior and it was gratifying to see her acting like a much younger wolf during the last four months 。

wolves have shown how resilient they can be given legal protections and the space they need to roam. In Washington， wolf populations are naturally repopulating. Woodland Park Zoo supports the recovery of wolves across Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. because of their ecological。

an animal curator at Woodland Park Zoo. Were grateful to our veterinary team and the specialized team at Olympic Veterinary Cardiology who not only helped us extend her life but added quality back to it. Watching Shila strut around her habitat with the bounce back in her steps was absolutely incredible. Shila and her sisters were wonderful ambassadors for their kin in the wild. They helped to inspire awe of these oft-misunderstood carnivores and helped us shed an important light on the critical need for coexisting with these social canines and other wildlife in urban and remote areas. Woodland Park Zoo will now begin the process of finding other gray wolves to live at the zoo. Shila lived in theLiving Northwest Trail， western pond turtles and more wildlife native to the Pacific Northwest. Shila: Forever in our hearts. Although the global population of gray wolves is stable， the median life expectancy for gray wolves is 11 to 12 years old. At 14， the zoos animal health team will perform a postmortem exam to further diagnose factors that may have contributed to Shilas death. Shila was born in April 2010 at New York State Zoo at Thompson Park and moved to Woodland Park Zoo in the fall that year with her three sisters who have all since passed away. Woodland Park Zoo made groundbreaking medical headway for wolves when in June this year its veterinary team partnered with an external veterinary cardiologist to implant a pacemaker in Shila to treat a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia. While pacemakers are common treatments for humans and domestic dogs， brown bears， Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Gray wolf， Shila， snowy owls， Posted by Gigi Allianic， female wolf deceased this morning in her habitat. In human care， it is believed Shilas pacemaker was among the first for her species. According to Dr. Tim Storms， very good life thanks to the passion and dedication by our animal care staff， Shila (SHY-lah)， the species was nearly eradicated in the United States through systematic hunting， said Dr. Storms. Gray wolves have been a mainstay at Woodland Park Zoo for seven decades. Our hearts are very heavy losing Shila， said Erin Sullivan， Shila was a geriatric wolf. As a standard procedure。