Community Corner
Recently Moved Gibbon Dies
Nikko spent 32 years at the Oakland Zoo. He will be returned to Oakland for burial.
OAKLAND, CA — A 35-year-old gibbon who was moved last month to Santa Barbara from the Oakland Zoo died suddenly on Sunday from a previously unknown medical condition, zoo officials said Tuesday.
Nikko, a white-handed gibbon, showed a decrease in appetite in the last two weeks at the Santa Barbara Zoo and died while en route to veterinary internal medicine specialists.
A necropsy found a suspected cancerous mass in the upper abdomen and abnormalities in both kidneys and the liver, although confirmation on his cause of death is pending tests that will take two to four weeks, according to the zoo.
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"We are all devastated Nikko is gone," Oakland Zoo president and CEO Joel Parrott said in a news release. "He was very special to our Oakland Zoo family. He is, and will continue to be, greatly missed by our keepers, staff and visitors alike."
Nikko had spent 32 years at the Oakland Zoo but became increasingly quiet after his mate died in January. After a search for a new mate in Oakland, the zoo decided to move him to Santa Barbara to live with a 40-year-old female gibbon and a 4-year-old adolescent female gibbon.
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Nikko's body will be returned to the Oakland Zoo, per the zoo's request, to be buried.
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