San Diego Elephants

San Diego Zoo hopes bigger elephant space will improve the animals' health, numbers

Elephants Sumithi (from left), Devi and Tembo lined up for zookeepers Tim Davis (left) and Victoria Zahn. Sumithi and Devi are Asian elephants; Tembo is African.

American zoos have decided to go big or give up when it comes to housing elephants.

The San Diego Zoo is one of five nationwide with plans for larger exhibits, while at least 11 are getting out of the elephant business.

The $45 million Elephant Odyssey, set to open in June in San Diego, will be the first supersized elephant home to debut after zoos have taken years of criticism from animal welfare activists about cramped quarters for the world's largest land mammals.

The zoo industry says the building boom stems from its research that elephants are happier and breed better in herds and therefore need more space, especially when babies arrive.

“There's been a renewed effort to find out what are the best practices for caring for elephants,” said Robert Wiese, the San Diego Zoo's chief life sciences officer. “It was about a decade ago when zoos said, 'We've got do something'” about the decreasing zoo elephant population.

Another trend in elephant keeping is playing out in Oregon, Florida and Pennsylvania, where the zoo industry is creating elephant ranges covering hundreds of acres.

The San Diego Zoo is a partner in one of those efforts. But zoo officials say that doesn't change their minds that the new three-acre elephant enclosure at the Balboa Park zoo offers enough space – and still leaves room and resources to work with other endangered animals there and at the Wild Animal Park near Escondido.

“We're confident that is plenty of room for these animals to be healthy and stimulated and psychologically challenged,” Wiese said.

Among zoos that are giving up on elephant keeping, some said larger habitats would be too expensive. Others, notably Detroit and San Francisco, concluded that elephants couldn't be housed humanely. They closed their exhibits in 2005 and shipped their elephants to a sanctuary.

Why the divergent trends? Mike Keele of the Oregon Zoo in Portland, which is planning a bigger elephant exhibit, said zoos are becoming specialized. “A lot of zoos are going, 'You know, we're not as good with elephants as others are. Why don't we focus on these other species that we are good on?'” said Keele, who chairs the zoo industry's advisory committee on pachyderms.

“Oregon Zoo decided that we're going to breed elephants and put a lot of resources into it. It's not cheap,” he said.

Groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals feel they've contributed to the changes in elephant keeping. “The zoo community is responding to the fact that the public is increasingly aware that zoos aren't providing adequately for elephants,” said Lisa Wathne, a PETA spokeswoman in suburban Seattle.

“Some of them chose to close down completely. Others are vainly clinging to the hope that they can still keep elephants in their zoo because elephants are moneymakers, especially when babies are born.”

Activists have complained about exhibit size for years, but that doesn't mean they are happy about these zoo construction projects. “You see zoos spending tens of millions of dollars on relatively small expansions with relatively little evidence that it will improve the health and longevity of elephants,” said Suzanne Roy of In Defense of Animals in the Bay Area. “They mislead people about what conservation is. Conservation is about preserving habitat where animals live and protecting them from human contact.”

A study in the journal Science in December sounded a dismal note for zoos. Looking at European zoo elephants, researchers concluded that they live half as long as those in protected rangelands in the wild.

The study blamed the stress of removing zoo elephants from their mothers and transporting them. It also cited obesity – an issue the San Diego Zoo has been tackling by placing its elephants on a well-publicized diet.

Zoo officials say the study's methodology was flawed and only looked at Europe. It didn't cause any of the five U.S. zoos with new exhibits in the works to cancel plans.

At the San Diego Zoo's Elephant Odyssey, eight elephants will share three acres, most of which will be an outdoor yard with a 137,000-gallon pool, officials said.

The $45 million exhibit, funded by private donations and a $1 million state grant, is the first major habitat to open at the zoo since the $28.5 million Monkey Trails in 2005. It will be like moving from a dreary studio apartment to a tricked-out luxury pad for the zoo's three current elephants, grand dames who retired there after careers in the circus and Hollywood.

These gray ladies now share less than a third of an acre in a 46-year-old exhibit. Five Asian elephants will join them from the 1,800-acre Wild Animal Park, where the remaining 11 African elephants will get more room to roam.

The new zoo exhibit will feature other animals, including lions, jaguars and the endangered California Condor in separate enclosures.

The idea driving the bigger zoo exhibits and rangeland efforts is, in part, breeding. Zoo officials want space to accommodate more males, who must be housed separately. They will rotate the range-bred animals into zoos as desired.

The industry is baby-crazy, officials say, because of the declining number of Asian and African elephants – both endangered species in the wild. Asian elephants have dwindled to between 25,000 and 32,000 in their native lands, according to the World Wildlife Fund. African elephants are better off, with about 500,000 in the wild.

Animal welfare activists are not sold on the zoo industry's rangeland projects. PETA and In Defense of Animals activists say they are concerned the public will be misled by the high acreage numbers because elephants won't be given free access to all that land. Animal activists still advocate vast, private sanctuaries in Tennessee and Northern California, which take elephants retired by zoos, do not foster breeding and do not accept visitors from the general public.

The zoo industry has never embraced such sanctuaries, pointing out that zoos provide more scientific expertise and conduct research. They also say there's a larger value to people being able to peer into the eyes of a zoo animal: It makes them care about that animal's plight in the wild.

Visitors will get the chance for more nose-to-nose contact at the San Diego Zoo's new exhibit. One notable feature is the “trunk wall,” a 13-to 14-foot wall that's low enough for elephants to reach over and accept treats from guests – under the watchful eye of zookeepers.

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