@StoppableSan, please take no offense to this but I am dead set against the return of elephants. It would be a total disaster.
1) The zoo took a horrible beating in the press and court of public opinion over the elephants. They were made out to be the villains in the whole PAWS debacle. The press was against them. The activists were against them. City council was against them. All of which really helped to turn the average public against them. Not for a second do I think the keepers were wrong to fight. They new the girls. They loved the girls. They honestly had their best interests at heart and were willing to stand up and fight to the bitter end for them. Just a hard battle when the zoo's side of the story is muted and played off as self serving by the media and all against them. In the end the uninformed average person tended to side with council and the loud annoying self service activists who still kicked the zoo when they had already won. It has taken years of careful work and good PR to get the public back on side and believing the zoo honestly wants whats best for their animals. To bring elephants bad will only reopen old wounds and welcome back the activists who have all the money and time in the world to rail against the zoo. All their hard work would be undone. For get the firestorm that will happen if the zoo tried to import a herd from the wild which would probably be the zoo's only realistic shot at housing a breeding herd. That just wont end well.
2) The zoo did decide of its own free will to send the elephants away in the first place because they believed that was what was best for them. Winter is a concern but definitely not an insurmountable concern (see my 3rd point in a minute). The girls were older and the AZA requirements are a herd of 3 bare minimum. Lets assume Iringa still would have died at the same point, the zoo would have been frantically looking for another elephant and we all know how easy it would have been to get another one. If they couldn't get one then there are the concerns about the social well being of Thika or Toka should the other die. Add to that in order to keep a larger herd or just to not fall below recommendations the zoo would have needed a much bigger complex that the zoo wouldn't have been able to build fast enough to meet requirements.
3) That all brings me to my next point the exhibit. There was a study done by the zoo to see what would be required to make a suitable new home for them.
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/zb/bgrd/backgroundfile-37875.pdf
The new exhibit would take up a massive part of the back of the savanna, hindering possible future development (which I dream of but dont think is realistic). It's cost would also be massive estimated in 2010 at $18 million dollars. That is a ton of money to invest in a single species for the zoo which rarely finds it easy to raise funds. And we all know the zoo tends to vastly underestimate costs. Costs certainly would have ballooned well beyond that. Yes today the zoo is spending $12 million on the orangs but thats today's dollars and I don't know how the elephants wouldnt cost a whole lot more. Just look at the massive amount of new fencing that would be needed, constructing a new pool (plus filtration), converting the old barn, the massive new barn, possibly having to reinforce the cliff face to hold the ground under the elephants and new exhibit, and all things to care for them year round. With winter the barn would really need to be huge to provide them with sufficient exercise in the coldest depths of the winter. The old barn hardly seems like enough space for two elephants much less a family herd. It would be the biggest most complex undertaking the zoo had ever done just to build the barn. I can only assume the budget necessary to build a worthy modern, Northern elephant complex capable of raising generations of elephants would be extremely expensive. Other than the barn conversion and upper paddock, they would basically be starting from scratch. It would probably be a cost thats high enough that you could totally redevelop a pavilion for the same cost. I really think that same cost anaylsis has come into play with the decision to phase out hippos. The zoo could spend $20-30 million building a state of the art hippo complex or they could use that same money to build a savanna pavilion (or at least make a big dent in the budget) and benefit at least the kudu, rhino, zebra, eland, marabou, ground hornbills and vulture and possibly relocated ostriches (to avoid the back and forth moves every fall and spring). Even if the zoo was magically given $100 million to do whatever they want with it I would much prefer the focus be on keeping what we have with a new state of the art hippo exhibit and doing whatever I have to do to keep the Indian Rhinos.
Now I know I only considered African elephants but the question of Asians seems like a moot one to me. Where could you put Asians? The drive through is the only large space in the Asian section of the zoo and then that means either phasing out the yaks and Przewalski's horse or adding to your budget and relocating them. The Schofield Gardens would be the only option for enough space to relocate the horses and then you get into a whole problem with offending the Korean community group (I cant remember what group was building the gardens specifically), by ripping down their gardens, not that they finished the project. There were supposed to be more gardens and several Asian bird aviaries, maybe some small mammals. The only other option for Asians if you leave Eurasia alone is to use the parking lot after building a parking structure and moving the front gate. Far too complex. I just think if you were to add elephants back you need to go for African based on the space available.
I do miss the elephants and in an ideal world I would love to have them back, especially to rub it in the activists faces, but I think the zoo is better off without them now that they are gone. I wouldn't be against the zoo getting them back if that's what they want to do. I just think the cost of doing it would realistically be too high to take that risk. I prefer just leaving things as they are and focus on the current stock. But we all have our own dreams for the zoo and they wont always match and that's totally fine.
