Some sad news about Donna the hippo at Evansville's Mesker Park Zoo.
Mesker Zoo director Amos Morris tells 14 News that Donna the Hippo has passed on.
One of the workers says it was quiet on Wednesday, but now, Donna, at 60-years-old has been buried.
The zoo's director hopes everyone tries to celebrate her long life.
"She passed away peacefully. No stress that we could visibly see," Morris said.
That seemingly calm goodbye is what Morris was hoping for when he made the decision to humanely euthanize one of Evansville's most well-known residents.
"She basically just laid down and went to sleep. No struggling, no kicking, no vocalizing," Morris said.
Donna, a Nile Hippopotomaus, came to the zoo in August 1956. She gave birth to eight children and outlived all of them.
She's been the subject of many news stories over the years, but this was the last time our cameras captured the 60-year-old in her pool.
But as Donna's birthdays added up. Morris says her health declined.
After more than a year of evaluation with the zoo's veterinarian and other employees, he decided it was time to say goodbye.
"What I want people to do is remember Donna in her hey day, in her vibrancy. She lived a wonderful life here," Morris said.
But not everyone has supported Donna's humane euthanasia.
Morris says he's heard the claims that Donna wasn't that sick and that this was about money.
He says his only motive was to humanely react to her severe arthritis and renal failure.
Now he wants everyone to celebrate a long life lived mostly at Mesker Park Zoo.
"She set a record as the oldest living hippo in the world. That's a huge statement. The world. We should be celebrating that aspect of it the keeper staff should be proud of the work that they have done and should not feel badly because she lived a fulfilled life," Morris said.
Donna was the oldest living Hippo in captivity in the world.
