Lucy the Asian elephant on her daily stroll (Incredible to see in the moder

Aug. 14th, 2012.

I wonder how many other zoos still walk elephants directly past visitors? I was astounded to have Lucy pass extremely close to my family as I would never have guessed that would occur. In the past it would have been commonplace at various zoos across the globe, and even though Lucy is aging and in poor health there was just the tiny bit of danger in the event and it would be frowned upon by many other facilities.

An excerpt from my 2012 review:

Lucy the Asian elephant has been the main reason while Edmonton Valley Zoo has made the news during the past decade, as she has been at the zoo since the 1970’s and is estimated to be 37 years of age. Lucy is renowned at the zoo and for decades was the emblem of Edmonton’s captive wildlife institution before she began to succumb to respiratory illnesses and various ailments in recent years. There has been a major push from animal rights groups, thoroughly justified in my opinion, to have her sent away to another facility rather than continue to live by herself. She has only ever lived either alone or with one other elephant as the barn, where she spends something like 85% of her life in the wintertime, is only big enough for two pachyderms. There was even a lawsuit launched against the zoo last year that was tossed out of court and so it appears that Lucy will remain at the zoo until her dying days and then I’m fairly positive that Edmonton will never have elephants again. Calgary Zoo, which in 2008 spent $10 million upgrading their elephant exhibit, has already announced that they are sending their 4 elephants away to a southern-based zoo for welfare reasons, as places like Calgary and Edmonton in snowy climates are obviously not ideal locations for elephants.

At least one very well-regarded UK zoo still walks its elephants:

http://www.zoochat.com/216/asian-elephants-returning-their-enclosure-1-a-66591/
http://www.zoochat.com/216/asian-elephants-going-walk-159070/

Auckland Zoo walks their lone Asian Elephant 'Burma'. Australia Zoo also walks their elephants 'Siam', 'Sabu' and 'Bimbo' and you can even feed them.

I think that this used to be fairly common in American zoos when many places were using free contact elephant keeping. When I volunteered at the Sacramento Zoo as a teen in the late 1980s the keepers would walk the elephants through the zoo, and at zoo camp one of the activities was allowing people to wash the elephant. We went in to the elephant exhibit with groups of kids and the keepers and patted the elephants all the time. Now it seems completely insane that we did that.

Elephant rides used to be common at zoos too up through the 1990s.

I'm not that surprised that fellow ZooChatters have come up with an example each from England, Australia and New Zealand in regards to elephants being walked through zoos. However, with the stringent new AZA regulations coming into play in September of 2016 in terms of all accredited North American zoos being involved with protected contact with their elephants a "daily stroll" will never be seen again. By 2016 all all zoos must have a minimum of 3 female elephants or they will lose their accreditation, and I'm fairly certain that protected contact is not just a recommendation but a requirement. Losing AZA-accreditation is unthinkable and thus being in Edmonton (which is technically not AZA accredited but it is CAZA-accredited and thus can trade animals with Canadian zoos) and having an elephant walk past my family was almost dream-like as I would never have guessed that would have happened during our zoo visit. Incidentally it was fantastic but a little dangerous and my daughter in particular talked about it a few times many hours later and so it made a big impact in her little world. It will almost surely never happen again for her.

Walking adult elephants always involves bullhooks. And the accidents are imminent.
Feeding in protected contact is much safer for visitors. The worst consequences are water/snivel/sand blown at your face straight from trunk))

Prague stopped to walk their elephants this year, when they moved into the new house. They used to walk on zoogrounds between visitors as well as outside the zoo almost every day. Some two years ago, one of them almost stole my corn when I didn´t hear her coming from behind me on a quiet winter day. I was walking slowly when sudenly a trunk appeared over my shoulder and tried to get it, but keepers saw her and called her back.

The last Czech zoo with elephants that travel on visitors paths daily is Usti now.

I know Seneca Park Zoo walks their elephants around the zoo in the morning, but that's before visitors are allowed inside.

African Lion Safari, here in Ontario walks a portion of their herd each day, throughout the grounds while the park is open. This happens twice a day.