Uma, the Basel Zoo s oldest lioness, passed away at the age of 21. She had to be euthanised due to her deteriorating health condition, the Basel Zoo announced on Tuesday. The lioness, born 21 years ago in northwest South Africa, had reached an advanced age for animals of her species. In two litters she gave birth to three lions that are now at other European zoos, the Zolli note continued. In the spring of 2020, animal keepers and the veterinary team had noticed that the lioness, then 18 years old, had lost physical condition and energy. Nonetheless, she had since recovered until, a few days ago, her condition had deteriorated to such an extent that she had to be euthanized. How we work This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news g