Do Elephants belong in captivity, even if it helps educate visitors on the importance of habitat and animal conservation efforts?
In the wild, elephants typically live in tight knit matriarchal families. They experience many emotions that humans can relate to like grief, love, pain and fear, and they have self-awareness, memory capacity and recognition. The question being asked by some is, is being in a zoo setting detrimental to their well being?
Critiques of the Woodland Parks Zoo’s elephant program say that the current plans for the elephant exhibit expansion is not adequate or recommended. In fact, many zoo’s in the nation are dismantling their elephant programs.
Co-founder of the group Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Alyne Fortgang, wants to see “the elephants retired to a sanctuary that would be in a warmer climate and a drier climate, that would offer a vast amount of space and would offer these highly social animals an opportunity to make companions of their own choice.” However, the Woodland Park Zoo has decided to take the advice of Task Force on the Woodland Park Zoo Elephant Exhibit & Program (WPZEEP) that put together a report over a seven month period in 2013.
The WPZEEP report states “…that although the elephants are healthy and staff provide good care, continuing the exhibit and program as it currently functions is not viable for the long term and changes are needed…”The WPZEEP recommendations included two options for action:
Option One:
- Create a multi-generational herd with an effective breeding program.
Options Two:
- Improve the existing exhibit but allow current elephants to age out or retire at the appropriate time.
I have visited the zoo many times with my daughter over the years and feel torn on the issue. Although I agree that being able to share with my child the wonders of the natural world up close and personal has been an amazing treat and a way to talk about conservation issues, I still leave feeling like something is amiss. Perhaps it’s watching the amazing creatures try to function in such unnaturally small spaces that feels strange, or maybe it’s the fact that we are standing there just watching them on display.
I can remember trips to the San Diego Zoo with my family when I was a young girl and the Sea World trips and even going to the small zoo in my hometown. I wonder if going to these zoo’s has helped me to understand the plights of the natural world more?
Alyne, of the Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants Group seems to think the answer in no. She states that:
“the number one reason the zoo says that they want to keep elephants is because people have to see an elephant in order to act on their behalf and save them in the wild. Well, there is no scientific proof that has ever shown that to be true. We are taking this intelligent and social animal and giving it such an impoverished life.” She continues by saying that “we are teaching our children the wrong message. This is not education at all. This is selfish entertainment.”It’s hard to say what the right course of action is here with folks on both sides of the issue passionate about their views.
As of now, the Woodland Park Zoo is planning to expand the elephant program, however, I am sure this isn’t the end of the debate.
