Today's press release from the zoo announced that elephants would remain in the collection, as there had been debate over whether the world's largest land mammal would still be in the zoo in the future. Here is part of the press release:
Next steps include implementing a design process for physical improvements to the elephant exhibit to build on the physical and behavioral health, and social well-being of the animals, including: adding greater flexibility to how animals enter and exit the barn, increasing the diversity of surfaces in the yard and barn even more than current, installing timed feeders in the yards and barn, expanding enrichment opportunities, increasing the complexity of the yard, adding supplemental wind/rain shelters and outdoor heating, and upgrading barn cams to allow for 24-hour monitoring.
Today's press release from the zoo announced that elephants would remain in the collection, as there had been debate over whether the world's largest land mammal would still be in the zoo in the future. Here is part of the press release:
Next steps include implementing a design process for physical improvements to the elephant exhibit to build on the physical and behavioral health, and social well-being of the animals, including: adding greater flexibility to how animals enter and exit the barn, increasing the diversity of surfaces in the yard and barn even more than current, installing timed feeders in the yards and barn, expanding enrichment opportunities, increasing the complexity of the yard, adding supplemental wind/rain shelters and outdoor heating, and upgrading barn cams to allow for 24-hour monitoring.
I'm conflicted and it is something that I've been thinking about all day. After a fairly long absence I just visited the zoo twice in the span of a week (and it is a 5-hour round-trip journey from southern Canada) and my 3 young kids all LOVE the elephants. In fact, I'd estimate that elephants might be the #1 most popular zoo animal in the world, ahead of the rarely exhibited giant panda. However, unlike countless other ZooChatters on this site I am willing to be highly critical of my "local" zoo and my gut feeling tells me that what Woodland Park is doing is simply a stop-gap solution.
Sending Watoto the African elephant away and bringing at least a couple more Asian elephants to the zoo makes perfect sense, as do the ideas around greater enrichment and heated huts out in the paddock. The overall exhibit is not that terrible and certainly better than many other elephant enclosures at a variety of American zoos. With nearby Point Defiance in Tacoma already having announced their plan to phase out elephants at least folks in Seattle will not have to drive 2 hours south to Portland to see elephants and people like me won't be 5 hours or more away from any elephants.
Having said all of that, the Seattle exhibit is now 25 years old and the barn is badly outdated. It is far too small for a growing group of elephants and the zoo has a very high level of quality when it comes to its animal habitats. Instead of spending a couple of million and making minor adjustments to maintain a small group of elephants, why doesn't the zoo begin a major capital campaign to raise funds for a shiny new barn and an additional acre of space in the outdoor zone? Woodland Park has consistently built top-of-the-line exhibits and the current space is not impressive enough for a zoo that is renowned for going above and beyond in terms of immersive habitats. Spending a couple of million and making improvements is okay but I would have preferred to see a state-of-the-art greater one-horned rhino exhibit with room for additional species alongside the armored pachyderms.
