Big old elephant male at Copenhagen Zoo, spent decades on this enclosure. For about six hours a day, that is. The rest of the time he was locked inside a so much smaller prison cell inside the house.
@redpanda, toddy, and dan: you are ALL correct. Back in 1928 the enclosure was indeed a decent-sized exhibit for elephants and was perfectly satisfactory to the general public. It would even have been considered progressive! On the other hand, not many people are as critical as I am, due to the fact that I practically demand that every zoo exhibit on the planet becomes spacious and naturalistic. I feel that it is totally fine critiquing older exhibits, as that is practically the only way to encourage zoos to make major changes. The prison-like conditions for the bull elephant at the Copenhagen Zoo should have ended decades ago, and it must be embarrassing for the zoo to admit that it was only fairly recently that the enclosure in the photo no longer held elephants. Perhaps the zoo should erect a sign saying "we are sorry".
I don`t criticise the zoo for building this enclosure in 1928, but for keeping a bull elephant in there until spring 2008. They should have done something decades earlier, or sent the elephants away to end the suffering.
"Damn right" again! (Sorry, Toddy... I just have to write this).
Actually, at my latest visit to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, the gates were opened up for the visitors to step inside this "exercise yard" of Chieng Mai´s, but I simply felt to ashamed to enter it.
But at my next visit I will do so. Just to get a feel for what he has had to live with for the best part of his life.
Thanks for asking. He is alive, living in the new elephant exhibit in Copenhagen. Better indoor stall, but hardly that much better outdoor enclosure, really...
Lots of info if you glance through Copenhagen Zoo in the Gallery here at ZooChat.
Copenhagen openend a brand new elephant facility in early 2008 and all elephants moved from the old house into the new, incl. the old bull Chieng Mai. He is still alive there and you can find pics of him in the new enclosure here. Unfortunalety the new bull enclosure is not what I had hoped for, but definately a lot better then the old one and apparently the plan is to give him acess to the larger female`s yard too. Just for reason that I dont understand, that has not yet happenend. At least this is what I know, I hope I am wrong!
Thanks Dan and Yassa ..... I'll definitely search for more info and pics of Copenhagen's elephants - though with a story like this, I'm always slightly scared of what I might find (stories of mental trauma, unnatural behaviour and so on). So sad .......... though most people's knee-jerk reaction to old enclosures like that one is to wholly condemn it by modern standards, I do think that at the time, it was constructed with the best of intentions. The unforgivable thing is that it housed this poor creature long after it would have been recognised as inadequate.
I have e-mailed the zoo about this but not receieved any real positive answer. My guess is that he has, as yet, not been given entrance to the somewhat better "herd enclosure" (still only about half an acre or about 2000 sq. meters).
My very own "personal zoo dream" would be to see Chieng Mai dare taking a bath in the pool of the new herd enclosure. Remember... Chieng Mai has been locked into a small prison cell for about 18 hours a day for the last 40 years, spending (at the best) 6 hours a day in his 350 sg. meter "exercise yard2 (less than 1/10 of an acre).
I will suggest that Chieng Mail is a mistreated and shamefully abused animal and that there is no excuse whatsoever for having treated him like Copenhagen Zoo has done.
This may explain my interest in seeing this innocent inmate being let out and have a bit of fun before he dies.
Reasonable comments from forumster GillP. We are in agreeance that it was inexcusable to keep elephants under these horrible conditions right into the 21 century.
Then why didn't any of you donate the 40 million € needed to build a new exhibit way sooner? I am sorry but I think that this bashing of an old exhibit is unreasonable. Was it a good exhibit? No, but it was considered to be so when it opened. And zoos can only improve little by little.
I will suggest that Chieng Mail is a mistreated and shamefully abused animal and that there is no excuse whatsoever for having treated him like Copenhagen Zoo has done.
I would be carefull with suggestin such things without having the full background knowledge. The exhibit may not have been good but the elephant keepers in Copenhagen have years of experience and are among the best. So he was no "mistreated and abused".
And the new exhibit for bulls is not what I had hoped for either but it is still WAY better then the old one. It has more then twice the space, a light and friendly indoor environment, sand on the floor and many more enrichment objects and possibilities. And let's not keep shouting out acre sizes (sorry Dan) as it is not all that matters.
