New York Times
Feb. 7, 2006
By Joseph Berger

Original Article

Elephants have never lost the capacity to astonish and delight. But in New York City in the not-so-distant future, they will not be doing their astonishing and delighting at a zoo.

James Estrin/The New York Times
Maxine, left, and Patty, who are in their mid-30's, roamed their two-acre corral Monday at the Bronx Zoo.

The Bronx Zoo, the only zoo left in the city that keeps elephants, said yesterday that it planned to shut down its exhibit after the death of two of its three elephants, or even one.

The current generation of children need not despair: The zoo's three elephants — Patty, Maxine and Happy — are in their mid-30's and could live for decades more. But if one elephant dies, the remaining two may not get along. And if two die, officials say it would be inhumane to sustain an exhibit with a single elephant.

In either case, the zoo will not replenish the group. And then, except for the occasional circus visit, the five boroughs will be without a resident elephant for the first time in more than 100 years.

"I'm happy for the elephants. I'm sad for me," said Peter Rhall of Valley Stream, N.Y., as he clutched his 2-year-old daughter Sophie in yesterday's frigid wind at one of the zoo's entrances.

It's a shift occurring around the country. While once every zoo worthy of the title would boast an elephant, facilities in San Francisco, Detroit, Santa Barbara, Calif., and Lincoln Park in Chicago have either closed their elephant exhibits or decided to phase them out. The Philadelphia Zoo's board, citing financial reasons, has abandoned plans to build a $22 million, 2.5-acre savanna for its four elephants, and is mulling what it will do about a current corral that critics have called cramped, said Andrew Baker, senior vice president for animal programs. In New York, the Central Park and Prospect Park Zoos stopped exhibiting elephants in the 1980's.

The reasons behind the shift are complex and involve both the distinctive personality traits of pachyderms and America's changing standards when it comes to confining animals.

Keeping elephants happy in captivity can be a delicate balancing act, said Steven Sanderson, president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Bronx, Central Park, Prospect Park and Queens Zoos as well as the New York Aquarium. Elephants prefer living in herds at least a half-dozen strong, need a lot of space to roam, are prone to arthritis and foot diseases, and can become distressed when new elephants are introduced into their enclosures.

The Bronx Zoo, Mr. Sanderson said, has a two-acre corral in which the elephants can move about, and its zookeepers monitor the stumpy feet of its elephants daily, but he would prefer to give them more company. Elephants may show their discomfort with a new arrival by the equivalent of a hunger strike.

"These are really social animals built around a matriarchy," he said. "The senior females have a lot to say about the size of the group, reproduction, etc. They do a lot of communication and are not open to newcomers."

The zoo has kept elephants for more than a hundred years. In 2002, Tuss, the matriarch and pot-stirrer of its Asian elephant group, died in her 50's, leaving the other elephants without a leader and an institutional memory. Last week a fourth female elephant, Samuel R., who had been named after a benefactor's father, died at 14 of kidney failure. Rather than replenish the herd, the zoo decided to close the exhibit.

Breeding elephants in captivity has proved difficult; not even artificial insemination or the introduction of a bull has been helpful. The Bronx Zoo has not had a live birth in more than 20 years. Laws intended to clamp down on the illegal trade in animals have also made it more cumbersome for zoos to import elephants from the wild. Given those factors, Mr. Sanderson said, the society would rather steer its money toward preserving elephants in the wild in Africa and Asia, where it already spends $2 million a year.

Animal-rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been trying for years to close down zoos. "PETA opposes captivity in zoos for all wild animals. However, there can be no doubt that some species are less suited for captivity," said Lisa Wathne, a specialist in captive exotic animals for PETA. "Elephants are suffering horribly."

She said that half of the 45 elephants that have died since 2000 in the 210 accredited American zoos did not live to reach 40.

But Mr. Sanderson denied that animal activists played a role in the decision. "We were on this issue 20 years ago," he said.

Yesterday morning, Patty and Maxine (yes, they and a third elephant who died, LaVerne, were named after the Andrews Sisters, though Maxine's name does not quite match her namesake's, Maxene) lumbered around their dirt pen. Patty, roughly 10,000 pounds and identifiable by her smaller head, scratched the hide of her skull against a tree trunk while Maxine, at 11,000 pounds, sprayed dirt on her back. Both swallowed apples and bananas that Joseph Mahoney, the zoo's supervisor of mammals, lobbed at them.

Mr. Mahoney, who has worked with elephants for 25 years, has gotten to know their personalities. "Patty is more of a planner, and Maxine carries out the plan," Mr. Mahoney said, looking sad. "Patty will lead Maxine to a log, and Maxine will push it around."