When was the last time you went there? I assumed they switched to protected contact for good based on this video, which shows the curator working with the elephants with a barrier between them (taken in April):
September 2017. The elephant was mostly in the water but there was no barrier, other than the pool being curved.
Alright there's a little too much speculation going on here for my likings. I'll clear some things up for you guys: Oregons herd consists of three different subspecies. Their new breeding bull Samson is a Sri Lankan x Indian cross. All the animals living at the zoo that were born there (rose-tu, shine, lily, and samudra) are all pure Indians. Chendra is their bornean. They don't have any "Malaysian" elephants. Additionally, Oregon was actually the first zoo in the US to produce a third generation captive bred elephant. As a matter of fact, all of the animals at Oregon bar chendra are second or third generation captive bred. As for EEHV, oregon is one of the few zoo's unaffected by it in the past 20+ years. The past three calves born there (rose-tu in '94, and then her calves samudra and lily, born in '08 and '13 respectiely, are all alive and well, and not affected by herpes. The past three deaths at the facility have all been mature bulls 30+ years old, Packy for TB and Tusko and Rama for foot issues. As for management, they are protect contact as per AZA requierments, however this was a recent change only coming into play in the past few years, and like several others (including the smithsonian, houston, and rosamond gifford), they are rather lax with what all entails protected contact at times. Technically the pool sessions are protected contact, as the keepers are not sharing space with the elephants, the barrier being the deep pool. It's no different than working an animal through a fence made of wire strung two feet apart, that many exhibits have. It's by definition "protected contact", but not really. True PC with eles is behind walls that their trunks can't fit through.
No they're not. E. m. maximus is Sri Lankan and E. m. indicus is Indian/Mainland. @Hyak_II I was always told the zoo has/had a few years ago an animal (bull iirc) from Thailand or that general region, no? ~Thylo
This is what made me feel like it wasn't quite protected. It would be fairly easy for the elephant to grab a keeper, for the keeper to trip or get overwhelmed by a water blast and end up in the water, etc. I've always thought of protected as having enough of a barrier to keep something like that from happening. As you said, it legally is "protected" since they're separated, but not really.
Lily has tragically succumbed to EEHV. Lily, youngest elephant at Oregon Zoo, passes away suddenly from virus
Looking back at previous posts on this thread, Lily might be the first elephant at the zoo to die from it (someone correct me if I'm wrong). What I'm 100% sure of is that the animal rights groups are gonna exploit this tragedy to further their anti-elephant-captivity agenda.
AR groups forget the fact that countless elephants die of EEHV every year in the wild. At least in a zoo setting, animals can have the proper care.
They also shame and victimize the people who work to try and fight this virus and are in mourning because their calf’s have died. If AR groups had any brains or decency they would support the research to find a cure.
It’s true; AR groups don’t care about animal welfare at all. You could have the most naturalistic exhibit (Bronx zoo’s Congo gorilla forest, San Diego Safari Park’s lion camp, dallas zoo’s Giants of the Savannah) and they’ll still throw a fit and argue that the animals should be “freed” into the wild or places in some “sanctuary.”
Just as I predicted: like clockwork. Animal rights activists plan vigil, protest at Oregon Zoo following Lily's death
This got me thinking a bit: A few years ago at Oklahoma City, Malee the elephant calf died of EEHV. It was later found that it was of the same strain that Chai had, who arrived before Malee's passing. Is it possible that we could have a similar case at hand here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't Samson have likely been exposed to EEHV when Rio Grande lost its calf Daizy to it a few years ago?
That's an interesting theory, but if he was exposed to it, why is he still alive? Is it just fatal to calves?
Precisely. The most vunerable age range is 2-7, by 8 it's getting into a safer range, but an elephant isn't truly in the clear until 10 or so. There is the potential Samson could have been the one who was shedding. However their old breeding bull Tusko was also likely a carrier and could passed it along to the adult cows as well. I'm certain the zoo knows who was shedding at the time of Lily's death, but who knows if they'll release that information.
