Ziggy--Brookfied Zoo

1937 Ziggy showing Slim Lewis how to get out of the exhibit without using the keeper door by, to use a wikipedia quote from below, "poking a zookeeper with his trunk."

1941

Ziggy and Slim Lewis, to be politically correct, "had an accident," the exhibit floor actually being responsible, not Ziggy. Ziggy actually saved Slim's life because he had shown him how to get into the moat in 1937.

At Brookfield Zoo on April 26, 1941, Ziggy suddenly turned on his keeper, George "Slim" Lewis. The elephant first struck Lewis to the ground with his trunk and pulled him beneath his head. Ziggy then tried to gore Lewis, but the keeper dodged each attack by slipping between the elephant's tusks. Eventually, Ziggy lunged so hard that his tusks became lodged in the ground for several seconds. Sensing his chance to escape, Lewis pulled himself up by grabbing onto Ziggy's ear, then punched the elephant in the eye. With Ziggy momentarily stunned, Lewis jumped into the moat around the elephant's enclosure and climbed to the other side.


1972

1972

In March 1969, Michael Sneed of the Chicago Tribune called attention to Ziggy's confinement, writing, "Ziggy's six-foot tusks, which once grew so long they crossed each other, now are decayed and broken. The once frequent majestic blasts from his huge trunk wail very rarely.... Ziggy refuses to face his visitors and turns toward the back wall, swaying back and forth, occasionally picking up stray articles of food thrown at him." The article caused a sensation, and Brookfield Zoo was inundated with letters about Ziggy. Peter Crowcroft, who had recently become the zoo director, announced that he wanted to let Ziggy go outdoors again. However, he explained that the zoo would need to build a new $50,000 facility to accommodate the elephant, something they could not afford at the time.

In response, people throughout the Chicago area, particularly schoolchildren, began collecting money for the "Ziggy Fund". Many elementary schools and high schools organized fundraisers, and the Bellwood Boys' Club made a five-foot-tall paper mache statue of Ziggy, which they paraded through the streets while collecting quarters. A number of donations also arrived from overseas, including several from American soldiers who had been stationed in Vietnam. In August 1970, the zoo received a major boost when William Sitwell, president of the Chicagoland Buick-Opel Dealers Association, pledged to match the money raised from individual sources.

As the Brookfield Zoo came closer to its $50,000 target, zoo officials decided they should see how Ziggy would react to being outdoors before building a new facility for the elephant. On September 23, 1970, Ziggy saw the sun for the first time in nearly thirty years when he was allowed to walk through a barricaded portion of his old yard. Slim Lewis traveled from Seattle, Washington, to escort the elephant outside. Ziggy stood at the doorway for about thirty minutes, then slowly came out and starting eating a bale of hay. After exploring the yard for an hour and a half, Ziggy went back inside.

Ziggy's new outdoor facility was completed during the summer of 1971. Most of the $50,000 were spent on a remote control door, which would allow the elephant to go inside and outside without human intervention. Ziggy finally entered his new home on August 28, 1971, in front of more than one thousand cheering people. Over the next few months, the zoo added a wading pool to Ziggy's yard and refurbished his indoor stall.


1975

The next few years were generally quiet for Ziggy. In March 1975, however, Ziggy fell into the 8-foot (2.4 m) moat around his enclosure while trying to poke a zookeeper with his trunk. The elephant survived the fall, but broke a tusk and scraped his head. Workers poured 84,000 pounds (42 tons) of gravel into the moat to give Ziggy a ramp to climb. The elephant would not move for 31 hours, but when a zookeeper opened a nearby door to a female elephant's enclosure, Ziggy decided to pull himself out. Once free, however, he ignored the female elephant and simply went toward his food. A few months later, Ziggy lay down to rest in his indoor stall, rolled onto his side, and died. Zoo spokespeople said Ziggy had mainly died of old age, explaining that the animal's health had been declining long before he fell into the moat. Ziggy's remains were given to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.


Cleaning Ziggy's jawbone, 1983