The South Lakes Safari Zoo has announced the death of one of its tigers.
The Dalton attraction confirmed on Monday the death of Padang, a Sumatran tiger which had been at the Dalton zoo since 2003.
The male was the animal which tragically killed zoo keeper Sarah McClay after it walked through an enclosure door in May 2013.
A Facebook post from the zoo revealed that the tiger died "a few weeks ago" after specialist zoo veterinary advice concluded he should be "put to sleep by the zoo's consultant veterinary surgeon due to welfare complications arising from his age".
It is with sadness that SAFARI ZOO announce the death of Padang a Sumatran Tiger male who has been resident at the zoo...
Posted by Safari Zoo on Monday, March 28, 2016
The news attracted a flurry of tributes from visitors.
The zoo post added: "Our independent ethics committee discussed all the options and had to agree with the specialist advice.
"The EEP Breeding Programme (European Endangered Species Programme) was informed and carnivore staff consulted beforehand.
"In the wild, we have never monitored a male tiger past 10 years old as they are not capable of surviving in the wild after that age.
"So at his age, he was likely to be prone to complications. We shall all miss him.
"We have held Sumatran tigers for 20 years here and today we have four young Sumatran tigers at Safari Zoo in the EEP and are doing an amazing job in educating and raising funds to support our 42 full time staff working in the Sumatran forests everyday protecting the last wild Sumatran tigers on earth.
"Padang certainly did his part in building awareness and he gave wild tigers a chance to live wild."