Korkeasaari Zoo´s oldest animal Coco dies

A sloth Coco-laskianen (or Coco-lazy), the oldest animal of the Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki, died at the age of 47, said a press release issued by the Korkeasaari Zoo on Thursday.

Coco was one of the oldest sloths in the world and the oldest Hoffmann's two-toed sloth species in Europe.

The heath condition of Coco was deteriorated in the summer as she was fighting with anorexia and nausea. She was anesthetised on Wednesday to undergo a health check-up, but she was not awaken from the sleep.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Helsinki will examine the body and later it will be sent to the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus.

The body of Dustin, who arrived Finland along with Coco remains hanging on a branch of a tree in the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus. Dustin died in 2003.

Coco was born in the Panamanian rainforest in 1973 and taken to Seattle Woodland Park Zoo first.

Later it was shifted to Korkeasaari in 1985 together with a three-year-old Seattle-born male called Dustin.

At the initial stage of the arrival the animals were accommodated in the Monkey House in the zoo and later shifted to Amazon House in the mid-1990s since its inception.