Elephant Mother Rejects Calf at St. Louis Zoo

Elephant Mother Rejects Calf at St. Louis Zoo

San Rafael, Calif.—The latest elephant failure at St. Louis Zoo, the tragic rejection of a calf by her mother, has prompted In Defense of Animals (IDA) to call for the zoo to end elephant breeding. The group cites artificial zoo conditions, including cramped and barren quarters, limited social groupings, and birth protocols that call for isolating and chaining laboring mothers, as the likely reason Rani, a 10-year old elephant at the St. Louis Zoo, has rejected her calf.

“This is not an issue of inexperience. It’s an issue of the zoo environment producing dysfunctional elephants,” said IDA president Elliot M. Katz, DVM, noting that Rani was raised with her mother, Ellie, in the zoo. “Under normal conditions, Rani would have learned mothering behavior from Ellie, and Ellie would have helped Rani and taught her how to care for her new calf. Something is obviously very wrong.”

Elephants are highly intelligent and socially complex individuals who are renowned for their strong bonds between family members. Raising calves is cited as the most important factor in a female elephant’s life. In the wild, where calf rejection is unheard of, a mother and young calf are in almost constant physical contact, with the calf never more than a few feet away. A female elephant will remain with her mother for life and males don’t leave until their early teens.

Calf-rejection is a captivity-related problem, one of many created when elephants are held in unnatural and inadequate conditions. Katz states, “No matter how much care Rani’s calf is given by the St. Louis Zoo staff, it can never replace her essential need to bond with her mother.”

Breeding elephants in zoos plays no part in conservation, since offspring born in zoos will never be released in the wild. Zoos have had poor success in breeding elephants, with high rates of infertility, infant mortality and stillbirths. Nationwide, in the last 6 years, at least 14 zoo elephant pregnancies have ended in stillbirth or other complications, including death of calf during labor, euthanasia of premature calf and failure to thrive.

At St. Louis Zoo, Sri, an Asian elephant, lost her full-term calf in utero in November 2005; she has yet to expel the fetus. And in August 2006, Ellie’s baby Maliha had to be force fed shortly after birth. “This is just one more indication that zoos are simply not meeting the complex needs of elephants,” states Katz. “Zoos should not hold elephants unless they can provide the space and natural conditions that elephants need to thrive.”

In March, the zoo euthanizaed an Asian elephant named Clara, who was crippled with severe foot and joint disease. Both conditions are linked to intense confinement, lack of exercise and standing on concrete and other unnatural surfaces at the zoo.

For more information see www.helpelephants.com.