Coldilocks, the oldest polar bear in the U.S., has died at the Philadelphia Zoo.
The zoo made the difficult decision to euthanize the beloved bear on Monday after a serious decline in her health due to old age, the zoo said.
Coldilocks celebrated her 37th birthday in December. She outlived the average lifespan of a polar bear (23 years) by 14 years, the zoo said.
"We are truly saddened this week - Coldilocks will be greatly missed,” the zoo's COO Dr. Andy Baker said. "Her long and healthy life is a testimony to nutrition and veterinary attention she received, and to the generations of keepers who cared for and about her over her lifetime."
Born on December 13, 1980, at Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York, Coldilocks arrived in Philly in October 1981. She became a cherished attraction at the nation's oldest zoo.
"For more than three decades, Coldilocks brought attention to the issues facing polar bears in the wild including climate change and its growing negative impact on arctic ice," Baker said. "The zoo works to share ways in which we all can make small changes in our daily lives to reduce energy use, contributing to efforts to slow climate change."
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Fellow long-living Philly Zoo polar bear Klondike died in 2015 at age 34.
