Circling Elephant - Stereotypy

April 2009. This African elephant (Watoto) is in her forties and went round-and-round for 15 minutes straight in her tiny portion of the paddock. Two of the three elephants at the zoo showed obvious signs of stereotypy, whether it was going around in circles or head bobbing.

Wow, Of all the hours I have spent observing captive elephants I have never observed that form of stereotypy. I have only seen swaying. Was this elephant in a smaller paddock aside from the large one?

Yes, this African elephant was in a smaller, separate paddock. Both of the elephants that were outside were either pacing or head bobbing for 15 minutes straight, and it's the worst that I've ever seen it at the zoo. The enclosure won Best Exhibit of the year in 1989, but that was 20 years ago now and not counting the barn the enclosure is only an acre in size. I used to think that it was excellent, but having seen so many other truly spectacular elephant paddocks (like the San Diego WAP) I think that Seattle would be better off with Indian rhinos instead. There are plans to add rhinos anyway in the next couple of years, but if the zoo wants to keep (and breed via AI) elephants then they should perhaps renovate and expand the paddock.

It could be lack of enrichment, and elephant especially need massive amounts of enrichment whether that be scattering their food around the enclosure so they can forage for it or doing more training sessions, but clearly these elephants need more enrichment. The small side paddock isn't helping.

The one old African elephant is always separate and by herself, while one of the Asians (Bamboo) has a history of problems and once was sent away to the Point Defiance Zoo. She was not excepted by the pair of females there and so has returned, but the 3 elephants in Seattle form probably the most dysfunctional "herd" in all of North America. The barn is way too small, and the zoo is still attempting to breed Chai via AI. Woodland Park is probably a top 5 or definitely top 10 zoo in North America, but the time when the set the standard in terms of elephant husbandry is long gone.

I am sorry to hear about all this, since I have had a rather favourable impression of the elephant exhibit at Woodland Park, ever since I saw the presentation at Zoolex (and that was before I dicovered ZooBeat/ZooChat). Sad to hear that the African is not compatible with the Asians.

The African elephant is separated, but can still touch and interact with the two Asians. I'm not 100% whether Watoto (the African) is always separated or not...

I thought I heard that Watoto was the herd matriarch?

I agree with Sbowleopard woodland park is probably one of the most dysfunctional herds in the u.s. Watoto I think is only called the matriach because she is more dominant over the other females, othert han that I don't really think the zoo really has a "herd".

Watoto is aggressive towards Bamboo so they were probably giving Bamboo some time to socialize with Chai by herself with no Watoto to intimidate her.