AYLESFORD, N.S. - A small Nova Scotia zoo has lost one of its main attractions.
Rutledge, the lion lived at the Oaklawn Farm Zoo in Aylesford.
The huge lion would have turned 18 in May, but had to be put down when he stopped eating and started losing weight.
Grieving zoo owner Gail Rogerson, who raised Rutledge from a cub, says the normal life expectancy for lions in zoos is 14, so he led a full life.
Rogerson says Rutledge, who earned a place in the Guinness World Records in 1997 as the heaviest lion in captivity when he weighed 363 kilograms, had been showing his age for the past couple of years.
Rogerson says the zoo will do something to memorialize Rutledge when it reopens in the spring, but she's not sure what form that will take.
Guinness record setting lion Rutledge put down at 18 by N.S. zoo
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Published on
February 6, 2009
- Published on January 1, 2010
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The Canadian Press ~ The News
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