ZooMontana announced Friday the loss of Sofi, the 13-year-old Amur tiger. The zoo reports their Animal Care and Veterinary teams made the difficult decision to humanely euthanize Sofi following a recent rapid decline in her health. At this time they do not have an official diagnosis for the cause of her health decline.
The Amur tiger—once known as a Siberian tiger—is the largest living cat in the world. A recent population assessment conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2021, estimated only around 3,000 tigers remain in the wild across all subspecies. For Amur tigers like Sofi the number is estimated to be as low at 350 individuals occupying just a fraction of their historic range—roughly 5% of the habitat they once roamed.
Sofi and her sister Jasmine were born in November 4, 2012, at a facility in Florida before arriving at ZooMontana in May, 2014 ,at just over one year old. Sofi’s sister Jasmine will now remain the zoo’s only Amur tiger.
ZooMontana is the state’s only zoological and botanical park and is accredited by the AZA—the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
ZooMontana first opened its doors on its 70-acre complex on the west side of Billings in 1995.
