River's Edge - Asian Elephant

This excellent area is a lushly planted meandering loop trail which has a common thread of water features that form waterfalls, streams, moats, swimming pools, and even an aquarium. The trail interprets four geographic areas with representative exhibits for each, mostly mammals. The four areas are South America, Africa, Asia, and Missouri.

geomorph said:

This excellent area is a lushly planted meandering loop trail which has a common thread of water features that form waterfalls, streams, moats, swimming pools, and even an aquarium. The trail interprets four geographic areas with representative exhibits for each, mostly mammals. The four areas are South America, Africa, Asia, and Missouri.

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Is there a better Asian elephant exhibit in North America? While North Carolina, Nashville, SDWAP and (soon) Dallas and Cleveland have good/great African Elephant enclosures, I can't think of any that do a better job with Asians than this 3-enclosure complex.

I am always keen on reading about great elephant exhibits, so I would appreciate it very much if you expanded a bit on this, reduakari.

Please tell me some more!

Dan said:

I am always keen on reading about great elephant exhibits, so I would appreciate it very much if you expanded a bit on this, reduakari.

Please tell me some more!

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Well, first of all the exhibit from the public perspective creates an experience that the Copenhagen Zoo keeps talking about but from the photos I've seen fails to deliver: that the elephants are seen in the context of a natural "dry riverbed." To me Copenhagen's new exhibit, while a great improvement, is still just a moderately-large elephant paddock with zero vegetation and very artificial boundaries.

The River's Edge elephant exhibits are well-done from a visitor perspective because you can't tell where they end, seemingly merging into the forest behind. Very little fencing is visible, just "earthbanks," water areas and hidden moats contain the animals. There are live plants crowded all around the exhibits, and even some inside the animal areas (yes protected by that "dreaded hotwire"--but they wouldn't be there otherwise). The three exhibits are connected (but all the gates and "hardware" are screened from view) so animals can be rotated through them, there are pools and streams in all of them, varying terrain (steep slopes, sandy areas, some grass, flat spaces and shade), and the exhibit unfolds in a series of views, rather than being completely obvious from just one perspective as are most elephant habitats. Semi-tropical plants or plants that look tropical grow well in St. Louis, so the "feel" of the area is great. And there are at least two young (under 3 years old) animals as part of the herd, so it appears breeding is successful there. I think the total area available to the elephants is around 3 acres, but more importantly the space is varied and usable in a number of ways. There are built-in features for enrichment, including a tree that actually looks like a tree (unlike the "Utilitrees" of another zoo to the west!), mudbanks with enrichment ports etc. And the zoo uses protected contact. Great exhibit.

Thanks a lot, reduakari. It sounds like a very interesting exhibit indeed. Would be nice to see more pictures from it.

Your comments on Copenhagen are spot on.

I've never visited the St. Louis Zoo (I hope to in the summer of 2010 on a huge road trip), but their 8 elephants (1.7) are in an exhibit that I've seen listed as being 1.2 acres. Isn't that awfully small for such a large number of Asian elephants? Is there perhaps close to 2 acres with additional holding areas?

snowleopard, reduakari said that the area is about 3 acres for the three enclosures, so probably 1 acre each...it certainly seems that big or bigger!

snowleopard said:

I've never visited the St. Louis Zoo (I hope to in the summer of 2010 on a huge road trip), but their 8 elephants (1.7) are in an exhibit that I've seen listed as being 1.2 acres. Isn't that awfully small for such a large number of Asian elephants? Is there perhaps close to 2 acres with additional holding areas?

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OOO, antoher road trip! I can't wait

snowleopard said:

I've never visited the St. Louis Zoo (I hope to in the summer of 2010 on a huge road trip), but their 8 elephants (1.7) are in an exhibit that I've seen listed as being 1.2 acres. Isn't that awfully small for such a large number of Asian elephants? Is there perhaps close to 2 acres with additional holding areas?

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Something to think about: even if there are 8 elephants on 1.2 acres do each of the elephants have less amount of space to roam? Nope, all 8 elephants can still roam the 1.2 acres, which is why I don't understand the space per elephant argument. It's not like the elephants divide up the land so that each gets an eighth. They are not territorial species. I would say the space per animal argument applies to territorial animals but not elephants.

Scott, you almost elusively judge elephant exhibits on their size. If all of an elephant's needs can be met and then some within 1.5 acres why not make it that big. In my opinion as long as an exhibit has at least 1 acre of outdoor space with substrate it is more than adequate for elephants. I think 3 acre exhibits are great, but I don't think all elephant exhibits need to be that large. Some, like St. Louis, are actually quite good even thought they are in the 1-2 acre range.

@BlackRhino: I most definitely judge elephant exhibits based on their size, as well as the enrichment items on offer for the world's largest land mammal. There are literally hundreds of zoo elephants all over the world that have serious issues with their joints due to small paddocks that often have large concrete sections. I remember talking with a keeper at Zoo Atlanta who was working with a co-worker to encourage their elephants to stride back and forth across their enclosure for tiny bits of food so that the pachyderms would get some exercise, and yet the Atlanta exhibit is not what you would consider tremendously small.

Elephants need daily foot care in all zoos, as they don't walk anywhere near the kilometers that they do in the wild and thus they suffer terrible foot ailments and joint disorders in captivity. Elephants need SPACE, and if they can be encouraged to walk all day searching for hidden treats in zoo enclosures then that is fantastic for all concerned.

Within the next 5 years or so there will be 25 elephant exhibits just in the United States that are 3 acres in size or larger, and so 1-acre paddocks in my mind are totally unacceptable due to the extensive needs of elephants. In some cases all the elephants at a particular zoo DO NOT share the same exhibit space, as for example at the Oregon Zoo (and many others) the bulls are separated from the cows and thus are rotated through what amount to tiny areas of land. Sad but true. Don't forget that many northern zoos (Valley Zoo in Edmonton, Calgary Zoo, Toronto Zoo just to name 3 Canadian zoos) have their elephants in tiny, cramped areas for months in the winter where they can only turn around twice before hitting iron bars.