Chester Zoo Question: Chester Zoo

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Reenie Mastrella

Member
Does it seem to anyone else that Chester Zoo, as compared to other zoos that have TV shows, seems to be more hands off? For example, S1E4 is about Barlow, the aviation elephant, contracting and dying from herpes. I believe in future episodes, several other elephants suffer the same fate. In this episode, a keeper says she has been listless for several days, the blood test comes.back positive for herpes. Then she dies. No mention of treatment. No mention of euthanasia to alleviate suffering. Is this typical?
 
Reenie Mastrella said:
Does it seem to anyone else that Chester Zoo, as compared to other zoos that have TV shows, seems to be more hands off? For example, S1E4 is about Barlow, the aviation elephant, contracting and dying from herpes. I believe in future episodes, several other elephants suffer the same fate. In this episode, a keeper says she has been listless for several days, the blood test comes.back positive for herpes. Then she dies. No mention of treatment. No mention of euthanasia to alleviate suffering. Is this typical?
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Flying elephants are really hard to treat...also pretty sure there has never been an elephant at Chester called Barlow.

No you are not seeing the full picture here, plenty of hard work has gone into trying to save the elephants. Including lots of research into the virus.
 
Reenie Mastrella said:
Does it seem to anyone else that Chester Zoo, as compared to other zoos that have TV shows, seems to be more hands off? For example, S1E4 is about Barlow, the aviation elephant, contracting and dying from herpes. I believe in future episodes, several other elephants suffer the same fate. In this episode, a keeper says she has been listless for several days, the blood test comes.back positive for herpes. Then she dies. No mention of treatment. No mention of euthanasia to alleviate suffering. Is this typical?
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The elephant you refer too was actually called Bala (I don't understand the aviation reference). She died in September 2015 and unfortunately her playmate Hari also died a few days later. If I understand correctly, they were treated with antiviral drugs after testing positive for the virus, although this was were not shown in the programme, but that treatment was unsuccessful. Several further calves succumbed, but the zoo has actively engaged in research into testing and treatment and when Indali fell ill in March 2019, great efforts were made to treat her with different drugs and also with blood plasma from her father (Aung Bo). This was shown in SLOTZ Series 8, Episode 1. If you watch this episode, you will see that the term 'hands off' would not apply in this case: Indali was given a general anaesthetic and treated for an hour by a team of vets, keepers and the Curator. I believe that this procedure was repeated several times until Indali was clear of the virus. I am sure that if another calf were to fall ill (which Heaven forfend), similar treatment would be given immediately.
 
Reenie Mastrella said:
he blood test comes.back positive for herpes. Then she dies. No mention of treatment. No mention of euthanasia to alleviate suffering. Is this typical?
Click to expand...
They are getting better all the time at treating/beating this virus. What you watched probably reflected all they could do at the time. With a more recent case(Indali) there has been successful/treatment developments( See Gentle Lemur's comments also).
 
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If the team used a hands off approach then sadly Indali would no longer be here. Also a hands off approach would have meant more than the 7 recorded deaths and only 4 have featured since SLOTZ started(Hari,Bala,Nandita,Aayu).
As @chaotic_froggie has stated these programs are designed to attract viewers including "zoo muggles" as I call them.
 
So yes, I typed "asiatic" and it autocorrected to "aviation." And it was Bala, I believe, not Barlow. Sometimes, though we speak English, I don't understand a word here and there when spoken by a non-American English speaker.

I try dearly when I ask a question to be non-accusatory and respectful. I apologize if my post was anything less. I watch all the zoo shows with a great deal of love for the animals and admiration for the keepers.

It make sense that TV producers like to make things dramatic. I had never seen this episode from Season 1. I have already seen later episodes with Indali, Nandita, and Aayu. The later episodes with the blood transfusion and medications was a more comprehensive look at the herpes infections.

Thanks for the info. The way this episode was edited it looked like Bala was sick and "bedridden" for several days, then died overnight. Only one mention was made of a test, no mention of meds or euthanasia. So, compared to later seasons, it seemed more hands off.
 
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