Toronto Zoo says giraffe died due to stomach contents in lungs

The Toronto Zoo announced the passing of two-year-old Masai giraffe Matu on Wednesday, while he was anesthetized for a castration procedure.

After a necropsy was conducted Thursday morning, the Zoo says the preliminary pathology report found that there was stomach contents in Matu’s lungs.

“[This is] a finding that explains the respiratory, then cardiac arrest that occurred,” they said in a statement.

“The regurgitation of material from the rumen (part of the stomach) is a well-recognized risk when animals that regurgitate their food (such as cows, sheep, deer, and giraffes – all referred to as ruminants) are anesthetized,” they went on to explain.

To mitigate these risks, the Zoo said they took various precautions including modifying the giraffe’s diet as well as fasting in the days leading up to the procedure. These measures help reduce the overall amount of stomach (ruminal) content and the fluid nature of the content.

“Despite these precautions and many others, and although we saw no evidence of ruminal content in his nose or mouth when he was routinely intubated (had a tube put into his lungs so we could ventilate him), we believe Matu regurgitated and inhaled ruminal content, which led to his death. Once he had this foreign material in his lungs, our efforts to revive Matu were never going to be successful,” read the Zoo’s statement.

The procedure was necessary for the giraffe’s overall welfare and the zoo previously explained on social media that Matu was starting to enter sexual maturity “and starting to get frisky with his mom.”

Due to a foot injury from last fall, it was not possible to move him to another facility. So it was decided “the best thing for his wellbeing was to remain in his family group, alongside his mother and sister rather than being isolated, which led to the decision to perform this procedure.”

The Zoo says staff are grieving the animal’s loss and are thankful for the supportive messages that have been pouring in since Matu’s death.

They say the three remaining giraffes Amani, Mstari and Kiko are doing well.