elephant

21-08-2011

Was the house closed to the public then ?

21-08-2011

The underground indoor accommodation was not open to the public.

The elephants could only be viewed when they were in the outdoor paddock, being walked round the zoo or giving rides.

21-08-2011

It sounds like they had a better life here than at the casson.

22-08-2011

I doubt it; I think that keeping the elephants underground was far from satisfactory. Despite the many criticisms of the Casson Pavilion, I’m sure that the indoor accommodation provided by that structure was preferable to the subterranean dens the animals previously had.

23-08-2011

Also, though I can't remember what the substrate in the old outdoor enclosure was (concrete?), I'm sure the sanded paddock in the Casson was better for their feet and there were proper bathing facilities too.

23-08-2011

True, was the Casson originally sanded or was it added at a later date?

24-08-2011

Can't remember. It was just the concrete indoors though, possibly even up to the time they left I think. Tim May might remember about the outdoors...

25-08-2011

We’re going back about 46 years (and I was only a child at the time) but, if I remember correctly, there was a sand substrate to Casson Pavilion’s outdoor elephant enclosure when the building first opened.

EDIT Since typing the above, I've checked the ZSL Annual Report for 1965, the year the Casson Pavilion opened; this describes the paddocks as having a gravel substrate.

25-08-2011

I think the reason I didn't have a clear memory of the outdoor Casson flooring material is because of the 'lip' around the moat edge which rather obscured what the Elephants were walking on. Similarly when they bathed in the outdoor pool they were semi-hidden from view.

I can remember the Elephants far more clearly in the indoor areas of the Casson.

16-09-2011

When I last visited the London Zoo in 2001 there were still Asian elephants at the zoo. Was there any outcry when they closed down the elephant program at the zoo, or was it universally recognized that there was not enough room for them?

Has there ever been talk of building a modern elephant complex at the zoo, or is there not enough room for that to ever happen? I'm guessing the latter, but am not familiar with master plan for this zoo.

16-09-2011

I don't remember any objectors, but as in all things I expect there were some(what is the Zoo without its Elephants? etc). As they were going to ZSL's country estate at Whipsnade there was also some mitigation in so much as the Zoo still owned them, even if not in London. It was also realised they couldn't keep a Bull in London and so were unable to breed them- the move would allow that to happen so most people saw it as beneficial on two major counts- lots more space and the chance for a breeding group too.

I don't think Elephants will ever return to London- space in the Zoo being the over-riding issue- the site isn't huge so insufficient to give a suitably large area for Elephants.