LITTLE ROCK — Nyla, the Little Rock Zoo's oldest lion, has died. She was 20.
Zoo officials announced the lioness's death Thursday in a news release, stating that staff discovered her early Wednesday morning. Preliminarily necropsy results showed that she died of liver cancer.
Nyla was donated from Missouri's Dickerson Park Zoo in 2000 along with another female lion named Sydney. The lionesses began sharing their exhibit with a male lion, Bakari, in 2008.
“Nyla was a special lion and we will miss her dearly,” said Zoo Director Mike Blakely in the release.
Read more in tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.