why would you say that? I would think any older cow would do.
Annie at longleat could use an elephant companion. And she was a circus elephant. Goats are nice but not like another elephant. I don’t know why this zoo is looking for a second elephant cow.
From Karlsruhe's perspective it doesn't matter what kind of cow it is, they just want to give some elephant some nice final years. My personal take is that there are so many problems within the EEP with too many young bulls, with two many old cows without herd, with herds that were unnaturally put together, with torn apart matrilines - that it simply takes many moves (and many years) to sort all of this out. Every move within the EEP helps the studbook keeper to put a tiny bit of the puzzle together and gain some space for further moves, while taking a circus elephant is a nice move for animal right activists but at the same time blocks the EEP.