BROOKFIELD, ILL. (AP) -- A 53-year-old male Hippo at the Brookfield Zoo was euthanized yesterday after officials said it was ailing from arthritis.
The 4,500-pound hippo named Hansel was the second oldest Nile hippo living in a North American zoo.
Zoo keepers say they made the decision based on "quality-of-life" concerns.
Hansel, along with a female hippo named Gretel, came to the facility just west of Chicago in 1956 from a zoo in Denmark.
Gretel died in 1973.
Captive hippos typically live for 20 years, although the animals can live into their 50s.
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