Tara's death, the Toronto Zoo's third elephant death in 14 months, shows the folly of keeping these highly intelligent, extremely social, wide-ranging animals in undersized exhibits that fail to satisfy their needs (Elephant's Death A Crossroads For Zoo - Dec. 1).
At 41, Tara was not old. African elephants can live well into their 60s or even longer. Tara joins Tessa, Tequila, Tantor, Toronto and TW, the other relatively young Toronto Zoo elephants who also died long before their time. Their deaths corroborate the results of a recent study showing that elephants live far longer in the wild than they do in captivity.
Elephant populations in North American zoos are declining. Infant mortality is high. Premature mortality in adult elephants is high. Disease, physical ailments and abnormal behaviours are ubiquitous.
It's clear the Toronto Zoo can't provide the space, complexity, social environment or climate elephants require. It's time the zoo moved its surviving elephants to better conditions elsewhere.
, executive director, Zoocheck Canada Inc.