Elephants kept in zoos experience pain and suffering, a leading animal welfare charity has claimed, and keeping them in captivity should be phased out.
In Europe alone, there are 580 elephants held in zoos, including 49 in 11 establishments in the UK - with two housed alone. There are also nearly 300 held in North American zoos.
Born Free says the impact of captivity on their physical and psychological health and welfare means that the majority of elephants in European and North American zoos “develop and display abnormal stereotypic behaviours”.
This includes “compulsive rocking and swaying, as a consequence of long-term psychological damage.” It also warns how “routine chaining is still practised in some European zoos.”
They warned how captive-born elephants in the UK have an average lifespan of just 20 years compared with a lifespan of 50 years in the wild, while 40% of infant elephants in zoos die before the age of five. Born Free also said numbers in captivity have increased in the last 40 years “through the importation of wild-caught individuals.”
The report, Elephants in Zoos: A Legacy of Shame, identifies zoos as net “consumers of elephants” and says that capturing wild elephants for “captive display’’ has on the social stability and conservation of wild populations, which has serious knock-on effects on the wider ecosystems of which elephants are a vital part.
Will Travers, Born Free’s Co-Founder and Executive President said: “We have tinkered around the edges for long enough, and more baby steps are not the answer. Elephants do not belong in zoos. Pole Pole, the elephant whose sad death at London Zoo in 1983 sparked the formation of what was to become the Born Free Foundation, was just another tragic statistic in a catalogue that overflows with tragic statistics. Let us be bold. Let us be brave. Let us be principled. Let’s stop this now.”
Chris Packham, naturalist and TV presenter added: “The attempted captive breeding and capture of wild elephants to be imprisoned in zoos is plain wrong and here is all the evidence to prove it. A tragic catalogue of inhumanity wrought upon a creature we claim to love. It must end today.”
Thi Hi Way, an Asian elephant was euthanised in 2020 aged 38. She was separated from her wild family at a young age and shipped to Europe. During her 29 years at Chester Zoo, she suffered the loss of seven calves, and witnessed the loss of three young grand-calves, and one great grand-calf.
Records show that, after spending time in a logging camp in Myanmar, six-year-old Thi Hi Way was imported to the Netherlands in 1988 by a Dutch animal dealer, who was believed to be responsible for the supply of the majority of elephant breeding stock in Europe.
She was transferred to Emmen Zoo, along with several other elephants, before being moved to Longleat Safari Park, UK, a few months later, Later that same year, she was moved again to London Zoo, before being finally moved to Chester Zoo in 1991, aged nine.
She suffered painful arthritis before her death which Chester Zoo says was linked to early years spent in the logging camp. But Born Free says the credibility of the claim cannot be confirmed.
Damian Aspinall, Chairman of The Aspinall Foundation, which also runs Port Lympne Wild Animal Park and Howletts in Kent, is sending all its captive elephants to a sanctuary in Kenya.
He said: “There are major challenges when it comes to providing high welfare standards for elephants which zoos have not overcome. The global captive breeding and trade in elephants needs to stop immediately. That’s why I am sending all my elephants to a new, wild life in Kenya. It’s time all zoos did the right thing. If they don’t then government must step in to make sure the zoo industry acts without delay to bring this sorry chapter to a close.”
