Why Zoos Insist on Breeding and Keeping Captive Elephants

Shocker: it's not because of concern for the species. Elephants are a crowd draw, a tool to help zoos make money. And nowhere is that made (unintentionally?) clearer than in a recent Salt Lake Tribune article titled "Elephant calf might help continue zoo's attendance spike."

Nearly one million people walked through the turnstiles at Utah's Hogle Zoo in 2008 -- and if a little baby elephant has anything to do with it, 2009 will see the zoo surpass its attendance mark for the first time in its 78-year history.

The zoo, which reported 995,688 visitors last year, is expecting the arrival of an elephant calf late this summer. Baby elephants often supercharge zoo attendance.

Walking past the zoo's Elephant Encounter exhibit, which opened in 2005, director Craig Dinsmore acknowledged that, at a time in which a sour economy could spoil the recent attendance gains, reducing revenues, a new calf could help keep a strong flow of visitors.

"But with a whole lot of 'what-ifs' attached," he cautioned.

Elephant stillbirths are common in zoos. And infant mortality is higher with captive elephants than most other species. "The reality is that delivering a baby elephant is not automatic," Dinsmore said. "Everything that can go wrong with a human pregnancy can go wrong with an elephant pregnancy. The difference is that there's not a whole lot you can do about it."

Yes, we know the physical health dangers are great, the captive life spans low, and the quality of life even lower, but hey--this shiny new toy baby elephant could bring us money, so bring on the breeding! More on elephants, in zoos and elsewhere, in coming days. Listening to a related radio program and reading an elephant-related editorial by a friend this weekend, along with an upcoming court date, turned my focus in this direction in the last couple days. No time to write that post today, but watch for it. In the meantime, browse this site.

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