45-year-old African elephant dies at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo said goodbye to its oldest elephant on Monday.

Jo, the 45-year-old African elephant, was put down by the zoo’s veterinary after she was unable to get up Monday morning.

"This was a heart-wrenching situation," said Zoo Director Steve Taylor, in a news release. "After carefully reviewing Jo's status, the zoo's veterinary and animal care team made the very difficult but humane decision to euthanize her. We provided Jo with a great quality of life and we're very proud of that."

According to the zoo, she was in medical distress Monday morning and was being treated for edema for the last several months.

Jo came to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in 1997 from the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. He was born in Mozambique.

The elephant care and visitor center in the African Elephant Crossing will be closed for the rest of the day. The zoo still have four other female elephants and one male, named Willy.