Elephant Exhibit

May 2009. Watoto the African elephant is always separated from the 2 Asians.

Thanks for the pic.. and then the US zoos (and some zoo lovers) wonder why Peta and IDA start campaigns to urge zoos to send elephants like Watato to a sanctuary, and why the public (sometimes) support them. Why the f** do they keep Watato alone, while both big sanctuaries (in Tenn. and California) could give her not just plenty of space with natural vegetation, but also and most important companions of her own kind???

I agree Yassa. I just visited the zoo twice within a fortnight, and both times Watoto the African elephant was in this puny little paddock. The 2 Asians were together but not interacting either time, and once again I'll say that the Woodland Park Zoo has perhaps the most dysfunctional elephant herd in North America.

This is sad reading. Judging from Zoolex, the elephant husbandry at Woodland appears great, as does most of everything about the exhibit.

But then again, just like Yassa seems to do, I trust PETA etc more than most of the members here at Zoochat.

I know that this makes me "the black sheep"...

I don`t trust Peta at all, but in some issues their opinion happens to be identical with my own. And I don`t trust many zoos that they have the best interest of their elephants in mind when making decisions, and the dysfunctional ele herd in Woodland is a good example for that. By the way, while everyone talks about the "highly important breeding program" and "elephant conservation", Woodland has a proven breeding female and no bull since many years and if I remember right, they have no plans to bring in a bull in the near future. Instead they are torturing the female with multiple, sucessless AI procedures. She should have been moved many years ago if the US zoos were serious about elephant welfare, captive breeding and conservation. Really great, yeah.