Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Zoo News 2025

snowleopard said:
The zoo's last two Asian Elephants, 'Billy' and 'Tina', are now at the Tulsa Zoo.

Elephants Billy and Tina whisked out of L.A. Zoo by night amid protests, arrive in Tulsa
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End of an era it appears has come abruptly. I wish Billy and Tina the best life. Many of us are saddened to see this happen, not an outcome we wanted. But this wasn’t an easy choice for the LA Zoo either. I do think Elephants of Asia was my favorite elephant habitat I’ve seen here in SoCal so far. Seeing Billy take dips into his pool for treats and when they integrated him briefly with the girls was a spectacle.

This obviously is a symptom of what’s currently happening with the zoo in general regarding their animal collection/habitats. Their Vision Plan may be dead in the water as far as we know due to NIMBYs who are given way too much voice and credence when what happens on zoo grounds has no obvious reason they should be acknowledged to the extent they’ve been. Along with being part of the City of LA, the zoo has to battle it out with many departments in regards to budgeting and project approval. This will continue to be an uphill battle for the zoo unless they get the city leaders on board with their master plan.

This was certainly a lose-lose situation for the zoo as soon as Jewel and Shaunzi passed, they’d have to integrate more elephants or ship them out. As seeing no breeding age female were readily available, they had to move forward with going to a new home not only larger but can hopefully socialize more. Maybe elephants can come back to the zoo in the future but seeing how it was costly to build EOA originally, I don’t see that being viable outside of a much larger expansion and dedicated mega donors. I want my home zoo to be better and should be amongst the greats as it’s in one of the largest cities in the states. Here’s hoping things improve for the zoo, also sending Billy and Tina our love and support at Tulsa.
 
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peruvianbirdie said:
Hopefully another defeat for them. As much as I will miss Billy and Tina, I do hope this means less pressure on the zoo and I’m still holding onto the slightest hope that new elephants will return in the future and controversy be overthrown.
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needless to say, not well. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I have a feeling it’ll either

A. Completely blow over as they move on to something else. Like what happened with Indu

or

B. Escalate into an attempt to get the zoo completely shut down. Probably won’t happen, but they’ll try
 
The crazy thing about the whole elephant situation is that 'Billy', a wildborn male Asian Elephant, is totally unrepresented in the gene pool. Born in Malaysia in 1985, brought to Los Angeles Zoo in 1989, he spent 36 years at the same zoo and never once bred when he should really have helped conceive at least a half-dozen babies by now.

To not have transferred him to another zoo with receptive females, or have younger females brought into Los Angeles Zoo years ago, is baffling. Is there a reasonable answer as to why neither of those things occurred? I reached out to a couple of knowledgeable elephant nerds on this site and one told me that Billy failing to have been paired up with younger female elephants is due to the "staggering ineptitude of Los Angeles Zoo". While there is certainly some truth to that, as maybe the zoo didn't want to lose one of its star attractions, what about the Elephant Species Survival Program? Since the whole point of that program is to have healthy, genetically diverse populations, why wasn't there a recommendation to either move Billy elsewhere or shift some younger females to Los Angeles Zoo? Perhaps that's where the true blame should lie, with the SSP over not forcing a series of moves with their recommendations. The zoo ended up spending $42 million on Elephants of Asia and now there will probably be a rhino or some water buffalo in there instead. What a colossal waste.

These days, the North American elephant population has plummeted from its heyday, with loads of zoos phasing out the species and it's becoming more difficult to even find elephants. Not every zoo can have an African Elephant like 'Callee', who has fathered loads of babies. It's not like Europe or Asia, with their robust elephant populations, or even Australia with its trio of open-range zoos (Monarto, Werribee, Taronga Western Plains) and their mega-sized elephant exhibits. In summary, many years ago when Billy was in his prime, both the Los Angeles Zoo and the Elephant Species Survival Program screwed up big time.
 
snowleopard said:
To not have transferred him to another zoo with receptive females, or have younger females brought into Los Angeles Zoo years ago, is baffling.
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Circumstances vary - it's not be the first time a genetically valuable animal went unused by the SSP. There may well have been a valid reason for not making movements to put him in a breeding situation.

snowleopard said:
Perhaps that's where the true blame should lie, with the SSP over not forcing a series of moves with their recommendations.
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It is generally difficult for the SSPs to actually force moving animals - the SSP is merely a managing group of the animals owned by the various zoos and cities. Facilities are expected to comply with Green/Signature SSP recommendations, but anything below that there is no force at all. The Asian Elephant SSP has not been in the position to "force" recommendations in a long time. They barely retained SSP status when the latest revision of the SSP requirements happened.

snowleopard said:
These days, the North American elephant population has plummeted from its heyday, with loads of zoos phasing out the species and it's becoming more difficult to even find elephants.
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And it will continue til only the facilities able to house herds on acreage remain. Though personally I'm glad a number of the elephant exhibits I've seen are no longer - they were small and only able to house two or maybe three elephants in somewhat cramped quarters. It is a pity though that most zoos are not able to follow Fresno's path of going from a small circle exhibit to a spacious new savannah with successful breeding. I wish more zoos were able to retain elephants, but the necessary space to both adequately house them and keep activists at relative bay is not something most zoos can afford to devote to them.
 
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