Amazon World has announced, with an extremely heavy heart, that Bow, the male ocelot, has died. Bow’s health is said to have rapidly deteriorated last weekend, which led to a trip to the vets on Monday to allow for further investigations to be carried out. Sadly, x-rays confirmed that Bow’s cancer had spread to his other organs and therefore the difficult decision was made for the ocelot to be put to sleep. Bow, who arrived at the Winford attraction in June 2003, was diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer in June last year. Chemotherapy drugs were started and his condition improved immensely. Bow was monitored closely since his cancer diagnosis by his keepers with daily medication, bi-monthly chemo drugs and daily logs of his appetite and activity level, a weekly weigh in and a vet check every month. Senior Keepers and the zoo’s vet worked extremely hard to keep him as happy and healthy as possible, giving him another 10 months of life. A spokesperson for Amazon World has said:
“He was the most gentlest wild cat you could ever meet, and everyone who worked with him fell in love with his calm and gentle nature. “Goodbyes are always hard and I’m sure you can all imagine loosing Bow is extremely difficult for the whole team”.
