On Monday morning, the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium addressed the recent losses of five different animals.
A little over a week ago, an 18-year old sea lion named Seahawk unfortunately passed away.
Seahawk is the fifth animal to die at the Zoo over the past seven months.
President and CEO Doctor Jeremy Goodman assured the media that the deaths are not caused by human error.
“No miscalculated drug, no missed dosing or any inappropriate treatment,” said Goodman.
Putting in bluntly, Goodman said that all animals die and with 8,000 in the Zoo’s care, it’s bound to happen, though to have this many in a small amount of time is unusual.
Three of the five animals that died were close to their maximum life expectancy, however, Goodman said it's still unusual to have so many deaths within a cluster.
The Zoo was closed for a day last week in order to allow staff members to grieve.
All medical procedures are reviewed internally as well as externally by American Humane.
Goodman said the losses make it hard on staff members.
“We try to give our staff the time that they need, they have dangerous jobs quite honestly and if their mind is not on what they’re doing, it can be a dangerous situation . . . and everybody grieves differently so we try to really give each of our individual staff members what they need,” said Goodman.
In addition to the sea lion, a baby elephant, lowland gorilla, African lion and red panda has died over the past seven months.