One of the Buffalo Zoo's three Asian elephants has died.  The 52-year-old "Buki" had been losing weight recently as her appetite declined and medical tests revealed a change in kidney function. Her keepers spent each morning reading to her from hundreds of get-well wishes from the community. She died just after 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Results of a necropsy are not expected for several weeks. A study published in Zoo Biology magazine in 2004 found the average life expectancy for female Asian elephants in captivity is 44.8 years, about the same as elephants in the wild. Buki was born wild in Thailand and was in circuses from about 1959 until 1984, when she was retired and sent to Buffalo.