 | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | Science: Zoo elephants stress, die young: UK group">Archive of stories pre April 2007 | | | | | | | 
Archive of stories pre April 2007 | News submitted by: MIB
LONDON (Reuters) -- Elephants should not be kept in zoos or safari parks because they suffer stress and die early, a British animal charity said on Wednesday.
The RSPCA is calling for a halt to new elephants being sent to zoos in Britain and Europe and an end to captive breeding program.
Ninety percent of European zoo elephants have no natural grazing and the minimum enclosure sizes are more than 60 times smaller than the smallest wild territories, it said.
"We hope zoos will sit up and listen," said Becky Hawkes of the charity, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "There is no way zoos should be keeping elephants."
But Britain's Federation of Zoos said the knowledge of how to keep elephants had only evolved over the last 20 years.
"We now have the correct husbandry and methodology to keep them living longer," a spokeswoman told the BBC.
Oxford University research, funded by the RSPCA, found about 35 percent of zoo females do not breed, around 20 percent of Asian calves are stillborn and mothers reject six to 18 percent of their young.
Georgia Mason, one of the zoologists leading the Oxford study, said things were not improving over time.
"We can definitely say zoos are not meeting the requirements of elephants," she told Reuters.
Mason added that elephants in zoos lived half as long as those used in the logging industry in Asia.
Individual Asian elephants as old as 79 have been reported in timber camps. Their average life expectancy in European zoos is 15.
"There is quite a lot of evidence they are stressed," Mason said. Suggested causes for repetitive behaviour such as swaying and head lolling are loneliness and the grim English weather.
Wild elephants are social animals that move in herds six to 10 strong. In Europe's zoos they are often housed alone or in twos.
The research was based on records of 770 elephants kept in Europe. The RSPCA believes zoos will appreciate it is the fullest research ever produced on the subject.
Bigger enclosures
Several zoos are making efforts to provide more space.
London zoo has moved its elephants to a seven acre site where they can enjoy the mud wallows and dust pits they would know in the wild.
"All the elephants are doing well since the move," said a spokeswoman.
Paignton zoo in south west England, one of the country's largest, has also built a larger elephant enclosure.
"The old-style zoo is a thing of the past,' said a Paignton spokesman. "Zoos are the places where most is learned about elephants...The purpose of zoos is to bring the public face to face with animals they would never normally see."
But the RSPCA says money for enlarging enclosures would be better spent on protecting elephants in the wild.
Dolphins are no longer kept in captivity in Britain after an RSPCA campaign. Hawkes hopes zoo elephants will also become a thing of the past.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/10/23/elephants.zoos.reut/index.html
|
| | | | | | | |
| |
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
Article Rating |
|
|
| |
|
| |
Average Score: 0
Votes: 0
|
|
|
| |
|
blocks-left.jpg
|
Online Stats: 
