snowleopard, what is your take on what went wrong with Calgary Zoo's elephant program? Why did they sink many millions of dollars into a new exhibit and then decide to abandon it?
snowleopard, what is your take on what went wrong with Calgary Zoo's elephant program? Why did they sink many millions of dollars into a new exhibit and then decide to abandon it?
Calgary Zoo has had a number of highly controversial incidents in the past few years, and the zoo came up with an "Action Plan" that I included in my 2012 review (I provided the link). The abandonment of the elephant program is due to welfare reasons, as the exhibit is tragically small in comparison to the behemoths that have sprung up across North America in the past decade. Also, Calgary experiences incredibly cold temperatures of 4 degrees or less during 6 months of the year and that is ridiculously too cold for Asian elephants. Thirdly, a baby is due in early 2013 and 5 elephants in a barn for much of the year has Animal Rights Activists written all over it.
The puzzling aspect is that the zoo spent $10 million on Elephant Crossing and while it opened in 2008 many of the controversial incidents (including numerous animal deaths) occurred after the 2006-2007 planning/construction period for Elephant Crossing. The zoo will not struggle when it loses its elephants as there is a fine collection of hardy, cold-weather creatures and the African species are maintained in two massive pavilions.
Spike, who has been at Calgary Zoo for 21 years, will be departing within a few months to sunny Tampa to join up with the herd at Busch Gardens. There is still no word on the 3 female elephants that will be leaving Calgary, but this is yet another example of a northern zoo sending its elephants to a more southerly location. Spike will spend far more time outside and instead of months of snow he will be able to enjoy sunshine for 300+ days a year.
