Rajah, the beloved Bengal tiger of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, has died, the zoo announced Thursday afternoon.

The zoo took to its official Facebook account to commemorate its time with Rajah and his life at the facility, where he was adored by guests and keepers for nearly two decades.

“Rajah came to the zoo as just a small tiger cub,” the zoo reported. “Rajah lived his life comfortably at the zoo, and was (around) 18 years old, which is a similar equivalent to a 90-95-year-old human.”Rajah joined the zoo in 2004 and, despite growing older, was recently observed by caretakers playing with his sister Rani and playing with enrichment toys.

Joel Hamilton, executive director, said Rajah began to display signs of medical issues, not uncommon for an animal of his age.

“We think he probably had cancer. He had aggressive tumors that had grown in his jaw,” Hamilton said. “It is not uncommon for medical issues to arise with animals of Rajah’s age. As they live longer, these issues will come up.”

Hamilton said once Rajah’s quality of life began to be compromised by his pain and medical issues, staff at the zoo made the difficult decision to put him down.

“His life not only brought joy to so many of us and our guests but helped the zoo educate our guests about this endangered species and how important it is to take care of our wildlife and preserve our planet,” Hamilton said.

The Bengal tiger is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
Hamilton said the zoo is in the process of adopting another tiger, depending on which facilities have a surplus.

“I want to remind people that we are a nonprofit, and we do have 300 other beloved animals in our collection that can be seen.” Hamilton said. “Rajah will love on in the hearts of our staff and all those who loved him.”