Growing research on the subject indicates that elephants fare badly in captivity due to health issues that often lead to vastly shorter lifespans compared to their wild counterparts. Physical ailments including the spread and contraction of an often-fatal infectious hemorrhagic disease caused by Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV), foot and musculoskeletal disease, obesity, poor reproductive success, high calf mortality, and behavioral abnormalities related to stress or mental trauma continue to occur at troublingly high rates in captive populations of both African and Asian elephants.
Zoos Set Up “End-of-Life” Care for Elephants who Are Only Middle Aged
The extent of the suffering and often premature deaths experienced by elephants held captive at zoos has been reiterated by a recent Fox News article that describes the demand for “end-of-life care” in elephants who are decades younger than the maximum age observed in the wild. For both elephant species, the maximum age observed in the wild has exceeded 70 years old. The article focuses on Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s 37-year-old African elephant, Malaika, who was given a final resting place on Saturday, May 13, after a years-long struggle with health issues related to mobility problems and chronic illness. When she was found unable to stand up on her own, zoo staff euthanized her. She left behind enclosure companions including 54-year-old Missy, 45-year-old Kimba, 44-year-old Lucky, 40-year-old Jambo, and 40-year-old LouLou.
Over ten years ago, to meet the demand for specialized staff and housing to provide end-of-life care for their aging female elephants, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo built a sort of retirement center for these elephants, as staff knew there would be challenges ahead concerning accommodating the health and welfare of the elephants and their captivity-related diseases. At the time this new approach to elephant care was established at the zoo, the elephants of concern were just 30, 34, 35, and 44 years old, and Malaika would have been in her 20s; still up to two decades earlier than the median lifespan of 50 years old for wild African elephants. Captive elephants in their 30s and 40s receiving “end-of-life care” so young blatantly underlines just how terribly elephants fare in zoos.
“End of Life” Comes Far Sooner for Captive Elephants
“End-of-life” care to treat issues for elephants beginning several years to decades before one would expect a wild elephant to develop the same complications occurs regularly at numerous zoos in efforts to combat the negative effects of captivity. These negative effects are often instigated by the restricted space, limited opportunity to move, harmful substrate composition (e.g., materials that are too hard for elephants to stand on like concrete), and inappropriate diet present in captive settings. In early May, The San Diego Zoo euthanized Mary, a 59-year-old Asian elephant after age-related joint ailments affected her daily activity. According to the zoo, she had been undergoing preventative and curative veterinary care, including receiving hydrotherapy, physical therapy, and palliative care, “for some time” before her death.
Similarly, Zoo Knoxville recently bid farewell to their 42-year-old female African elephant Jana, and two others named Tonka (aged 44) and Edie (aged 40), who will be moved to The Elephant Sanctuary as part of their “end-of-life” care plan. According to Zoo Knoxville, all three of the elephants are already considered to be “senior citizens.” Similarly, in 2014, 44-year-old Joni, at that time considered by zoo officials to be an “elderly” elephant, was in the process of being relocated from South Carolina to Colorado Springs to receive “geriatric care” when she sadly died in transit. She was the only elephant remaining at the Greenville Zoo by the time she left South Carolina. The move would have been her last chance to socialize with other elephants. According to Bob Chastain, then Cheyenne Mountain Zoo President and CEO, “We knew there was a risk involved in transporting Joni because of her age, but we also knew that she deserved the very best end-of-life care and we wanted to give that to her.”
On their website, Oakland Zoo dedicates an entire section to their “care for aging elephants,” who include still-living 43-year-old Donna and now deceased 46-year-old Lisa, who died in March 2023. The webpage (which has yet to be updated concerning Lisa’s death) highlights that they consider these elephants to be “elderly,” and that they “experience degenerative health afflictions related to aging: arthritics, chronic eye disease, and more. We are giving these aging elephants cutting-edge medical care to address their afflictions, including physical therapy, laser treatments, regular ophthalmology treatments for their eyes, and daily Epsom salt soaks. We have a physical rehabilitation veterinarian visit our elephants (and several other aging animals in the Zoo) regularly to observe and provide customized, individual treatment plans.”
Short Lifespans Demonstrate the Trouble with Elephant Captivity
The words used so frequently by zoos to describe middle-aged elephants, including “geriatric,” “elderly,” and “senior,” indicate the accelerated level of suffering these animals experience in captivity, often decades too soon. The best and only way to commit to effective and ethical care for elephants would be to ensure that no more elephants enter this abysmal life only to suffer painful complications associated with advanced age years sooner than they naturally would in the wild. From the stories summarized above, it seems clear that the only way to ensure that elephants can live up to their maximum age, and enter the true “golden years,” is to keep them where they belong: in the wild.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Devan
