Shila, the only surviving gray wolf at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, died Friday.

She was the last of four wolf sisters who arrived in 2010 from the New York State Zoo in Thompson Park, where they were born. Shila’s keepers found her dead in her habitat Friday morning.

At 14 years old, Shila (SHY-la) had lived two to three years beyond the median lifespan of gray wolves in captivity, zoo officials said. She also suffered from cardiac arrhythmia and in June had a pacemaker fitted. Zoo officials believe this is the first procedure of its kind for a wolf.

Necropsy results will be available in a few weeks, zoo spokeswoman Gigi Allianic said.

News of Shila’s death sparked an outcry from zoo visitors, and the zoo’s Facebook page quickly filled with stories, photos and videos of Shila and her sisters.

“They were our favorite part of our visits,” Brittany Jarvis wrote on the zoo’s Facebook page. “How heartbreaking.”

On Saturday morning, under a completely dark sky, visitors were able to observe the now vacant wolf habitat that was Shila’s home.

“It was always nice to check in and see how they were doing, how she was doing,” said Mouse Reusch, who stood with her husband, Dave Reusch, near the habitat, where a sign read: “He there are no animals in this habitat today.

Shila’s death was deeply felt by zoo staff, who were well aware of the animal’s health problems and advanced age.

“It’s hard to say goodbye,” said Mike Dykens, a zoo groundskeeper, from the seat of his utility cart. “Absolutely, we’re getting attached.”

Zoo officials said they “will now begin the process of finding additional gray wolves to live at the zoo.”

Shila and her sisters – Doba, Aponi and Kaya – were 5 months old when they arrived at the Woodland Park Zoo from New York, said Allianic, who remembers the puppies fondly.

“I watched them grow up,” she said.

The four sisters quickly endeared themselves to zoo staff and visitors. They eventually became famous locally for their impromptu screaming sessions, which visitors would sometimes try to provoke with their own imitation howls.

Eventually, the zoo had to post signs asking visitors to refrain from screaming.

“We didn’t want people to encourage them,” Allianic said, adding that police and ambulance sirens were still enough to scare away the wolves.

Zoo officials said Shila and her sisters played an important role in connecting visitors to a species that has become controversial amid debate over the often conflicting demands of wildlife preservation and livestock management.

“Shila and her sisters were wonderful ambassadors for their loved ones in the wild,” Erin Sullivan, curator of animals at the zoo, said in a statement Friday.

“They have helped inspire respect for these often misunderstood carnivores and helped us shed important light on the critical need to coexist with these social dogs and other wildlife in urban and remote areas,” Sullivan added.

Almost wiped out in the 1930s

Washington state’s wolf population nearly disappeared in the 1930s, but has recovered strongly since 2008, when a pack was seen in Okanogan County, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. wildlife of the state.

Gray wolves have been listed as endangered in all or part of Washington since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

Since 2008, when the state began its annual wolf survey, Washington’s wolf population has increased by an average of 23 percent per year. In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended protections for wolves in the eastern third of the state. As of December, the state had 260 wolves.

Shila was the shyest of the four siblings, “so it took her a little while to get used to people,” said Beth Carlyle-Askew, the zoo’s animal care manager.

But she was also known for the enthusiastic way she greeted keepers at the start of each day, when she gave “a little mini-howl to say ‘Hello,'” Carlyle-Askew said. “All the goalkeepers really enjoyed working with her.”

In the end, it was the shy Shila who outlived her sisters, the last of whom, Kaya, died in May 2023 at the age of 13. (Aponi and Doba transferred to Wolf Haven International, in 2019 and 2021, respectively; Aponi died in 2019. 2021 and Doba in 2022, both suffering from cancer.)

“It was kind of sad to just have one, no business,” Dave Reusch said.

In early June, Shila began showing signs of health problems, including decreased activity, weight loss and physical weakness to the point of immobility, zoo officials said.

Veterinarians determined that Shila’s heart rate was too low and on June 12, an Olympic veterinary cardiology team implanted a pacemaker in her.

Shila recovered well from the procedure and showed signs of improvement in her health.

“Her normal behavior had returned and she was acting like a young wolf again,” Carlyle-Askew said.

Allianic was not sure if Shila showed further signs of deteriorating health before Friday.

As zoo visitors digested the news of Shila’s death Saturday, many remembered the last time they saw the gray wolf.

For Jasmine Alvarado-Salinas, 25, of Seattle, the memory brought a smile. In 2019, she was near the enclosure when a group of young people next to her started howling at the wolves.

Alvarado-Salinas saw the “no yelling” sign and considered holding his tongue — but decided that with “a bunch of little kids already screaming, I was like, it doesn’t really matter to this stadium – we might as well scream with them.”

She said that eventually, Shila and her sisters started yelling back.