Auckland Zoo is under fire for a decision to bring two juvenile elephants to provide company for its remaining elephant, Burma. Sarah Harvey reports.
There's an elephant in the room at Auckland Zoo, and it's not Burma, the lonely last pachyderm.
It's the anger of the international conservation lobby and the New Zealand SPCA, who have attacked the zoo's plans to import two more elephants as part of an international breeding programme.
The critics see it as cruel entertainment, and have doubts about practices at the elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka where the new ones are likely to come from. One expert says Burma should be sent somewhere else.
But the zoo says it has the facilities to offer the new arrivals a great life.
Burma has been alone since 2009 when longtime favourite Kashin died at the age of 40. An attempt to use a horse to keep her company did not succeed, and an earlier attempt to import an elephant also failed when the animal became violent in quarantine in Thailand.
But at the end of last month the Auckland Council agreed to loan the zoo $3.2 million to bring in two elephants.
Auckland Zoo director Jonathan Wilcken said the critics have mostly not come to see the good work the zoo is doing in this area.
"It is very different from a traditional zoo elephant programme. It is very different from what we used to do here 20 years ago. We give our elephants a lot more space, we have a great deal more understanding of their behavioural needs and indeed their social needs."
The zoo recently had a visit from US-based Alan Roocroft, who is internationally recognised as being an expert in managing elephants.
"He has been glowing in his assessment both of our current programme and its potential to grow," Wilcken said.
But more than 20 international conservationists, and our own SPCA, have spoken out at what they see as a cruel practice. SPCA chief executive Bob Kerridge said he believed the elephant programme was a money-making venture and was a departure from the zoo's otherwise good conservation programme.
"You have to question why they are doing it. Are they doing it for the sake of the animals? Is the reason for doing it to get people through the gate? If that's the case, it's not a good reason.
"Zoos, and Auckland Zoo in particular, have moved in the direction of conservation rather than a place of entertainment where you see animals in captivity. That is one of the reasons so many zoos are getting rid of their elephants because they are aware of the fact that this is not right for the animal."
London Zoo sent its three elephants to a private venue in 2001, ending a 170-year tradition. Other zoos to transfer their elephants elsewhere include Philadelphia, Detroit, and, just last month, Toronto.
Wilcken said more than 2000 facilities in about 110 countries still hold elephants.
It has not yet been confirmed where Auckland's will come from, although one suggestion is the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka. Wilcken said this is "only one of the options we are looking at".
Norway-based Joyce Poole, co-founder of an elephant research, conservation and education organisation, said the elephants from Pinnawela were not necessarily orphans needing a home. "Some of these elephants at Pinnawela have been captured from the wild, some of them have been born there, it's not very well managed. I have heard that the elephants are quite thin there and I have heard that baby elephants are taken away from their mothers to be given away to temples.
"My personal opinion is that Burma should go to another place where there are other elephants rather than bringing more elephants into a place that is not great for them."
Wilcken said he was "confident both the programme that we offer, the way in which we manage elephants and the sort of facilities we have to offer them, will give elephants a great life".
- Sunday Star Times
