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Wanted: More Big Animals
The National Zoo is running dangerously low on "charismatic megafauna"
By
Emily Leaman
Some animals have been relocated to make room for a new elephant exhibit.
Years of renovations and new exhibits at the National Zoo have taken their toll on the institution’s most important residents: the crowd-pleasing animals known as “charismatic megafauna.” Zoos have learned that to attract visitors, they need to offer 6 to 12 species of charismatic megafauna, the iconic large animals that range from pandas and tigers to elephants and great apes. After relocating its rhinos, giraffe, Nile hippopotamus, and a few pygmy hippos to other zoos, the National Zoo is running dangerously low on the popular animals, says new director Dennis Kelly.
The zoo, which once boasted one of the largest collections of megafauna in the country, is now at the low end of the spectrum, with just Asian elephants, lions, tigers, gorillas, orangutans, and three species of bears—sloth, panda, and Andean. What’s more, the state of the zoo’s pandas is in doubt. The departure of four-year-old Tai Shan to China in February dealt a major blow to the institution, and the clock is ticking for Tai Shan’s parents, too—the loan agreements for Mei Xiang and Tian Tian run out in December. It seems likely, after five years without another successful pregnancy, that future panda breeding will require replacing at least one of the existing pair. Says Kelly: “We’re confident giant pandas will always reside at the zoo.” Kelly ran Zoo Atlanta before coming to Washington in February. He says one of his priorities here is rebuilding the number of megafauna species. He’s committed to bringing back giraffes within the next four years and hopes to bring back some of the cheetahs from the zoo’s research-and-breeding facility in Front Royal. It seems unlikely the hippos and rhinos will return. Some of the recent relocations have been because of the new Asia Trail and Elephant Trails exhibits, both part of a long-term vision begun under Kelly’s predecessor, John Berry, who left to become President Obama’s head of federal personnel. Berry’s plan for the zoo, which Kelly hopes to continue, was aimed at upgrading facilities and improving the quality of life for resident species. Phase one of Elephant Trails opens in September and includes a barn that’s cooled and heated by water from geothermal wells. There also are two new outdoor yards, a second pool, and the Elephant Exercise Trek, an uphill path that allows the animals to walk, run, and forage. Phase two, slated for completion by 2013, includes plans to transform the existing Elephant House into an “elephant community center” where the animals can socialize as they would in the wild. With a $52-million price tag, the elephant project is one of the largest undertakings in National Zoo history. Kelly hopes the state-of-the-art facility will lure a new herd of Asian elephants, increasing the collection from three to as many as ten adults and their young. What about polar bears? The zoo would love to make room for them, but it’s a matter of finding the funds to build a suitable habitat—the Arctic mammals require the equivalent of a giant refrigerator at a total cost that would likely match that of the new elephant house. “Could we do it for $20 million?” Kelly says. “Sure. But would that be enough to do it right? Not even close.” This article first appeared in the September 2010 edition of The Washingtonian. Related:
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Posted by: ben mackens , Sep 23, 2010 11:18:59 PM
After a study funded by the British Government showed that elephants in zoos are treated as inhumanely as intensively farmed chickens, the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) called for a ban on elephants in zoos.
The same inhumane conditions exist at National Zoo.
We need to summon our humanity and stop keeping and breeding elephants to suffer their entire lives in an inherently inhumane environment.
Posted by: alyne16, Sep 02, 2010 11:00:52 AM
I agree that we should engage in critical thinking and discussion, so let’s discuss the fact that a groundbreaking study, published last year in the prestigious journal Science, found that in spite of all the problems that elephants face in the wild, they still live a lot longer there than in zoos. The study found that as soon as they are placed in a zoo environment, their lifespan plummets, they stop reproducing and they develop a whole host of captivity-related diseases that claim their lives prematurely.
Remember Toni at the NZ? She was one pathetic victim of this severe confinement. It was tragic to watch her lean against a building to try and take some weight off her painful, diseased feet and joints. Finally she collapsed. I would say the elephants would rather live in the vast natural spaces of the sanctuary than wait for death in a deprived, artificial zoo enclosure. It doesn’t exactly take rocket science to figure this out. This "new" exhibit shows tht zoos still don’t get it.
Posted by: Priscilla, Sep 02, 2010 09:21:05 AM
When considering charasmatic megafauna, it’s important not to act like sheep. You cannot get all of your "facts" from PETA while simultaneously hating/discounting the opinions of the professionals who have dedicated their lives to caring for the animals.
None of the elephants at The Elephant Sanctuary have access to anything close to 2700 acres. Further, they don’t get the veterinary care that NZ elephants do, and they don’t really live in a herd environment -- more like a bunch of twosies who share space. That’s not to criticize TES -- they do a good job providing space and privacy for animals while they wait for a trip to the big elephant graveyard in the sky. Unfortunately while they do that, these elephants cannot impact a student in-person the way, say Shanti does 365 days a year at the NZ.
And the "wild" isn’t such a great place for elephants anymore. Asian eles are massacred by trains, poisons, electric fences and powerlines, poachers; get their legs blown off by landmines, drown in wells, etc., and over 400 people are killed by wild elephants each year, just in India. In Africa, militarized poaching units are wiping out entire herds in order to trade ivory for more weapons.
Do zoos need to do a better job? Hell yes, and apparently they realize that. Dozens of them are spending millions of dollars to do just that. Personally, I’d like to see all zoos get rid of their bullhooks and go to exclusively positive-reinforcement training and management. Perhaps that will happen, things seem to be trending that way, albeit slowly.
So please, can we move beyond reflexively regurgitating AR-industry fundraising rhetoric, and try some critical thinking and discussion?
Posted by: TruthLover, Sep 01, 2010 08:16:55 PM
It is obscene that the National Zoo would waste $52 million dollars creating a new elephant exhibit that ignores the very nature of elephants. Until the industry starts putting animal welfare first instead of focusing on making money, it will continue to become more and more irrelevant in this day and age. The public is becoming fed up with zoos ignoring the needs of species such as elephants. We don’t have a right to keep elephants anyway we choose and ignore their very real need for vast amounts of natural space and freedom of choice. The National Zoo elephants should be retired to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee that would provide them with over 2700 acres of habitat that would allow them to live like elephants and at least have a chance of living to a normal elephant lifespan. This travesty of deprived menageries must finally end!
Posted by: Karla, Sep 01, 2010 02:34:22 PM
There’s an elephant in the room, you might say, that’s not being addressed here: Do animals who need a LOT of space belong in an exhibit that’s too small even after its renovation?
The new exhibit is divided up into disjointed spaces with enough foliage around the outside to give it a "naturalistic" look, but with very little of interest for the elephants themselves. With its manicured green lawns (that the elephants should be able to turn into dust pretty quickly), it looks more like a golf course-bowling alley hybrid.
It’s absolutely breathtaking that the Smithsonian would spend $52 million on an exhibit that seems to purposely ignore what elephants actually need. I hate to tell Mr. Kelly but elephants in the wild don’t socialize in community centers.
If you’d like to read a critique of the exhibit by a former zoo director and curator, read this recent op ed:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/21/AR2010082102421.html
Mr. Kelly and the zoo are like the emperor and his new clothes: they expect us to believe their wildly inflated descriptions of the exhibit rather than believing what we can see with our own eyes.
Posted by: Amy, Sep 01, 2010 01:47:05 PM
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