The Independent (London)
London Zoo is to give up its 170-year tradition of keeping elephants, in
tacit recognition that it does not have a suitable place to house
them.
Abandoning its most recognizable symbols has clearly been a
difficult decision for the zoo authorities, but it accords with a change
in thinking about how wild animals should be kept in captivity.
The announcement was made this week, ten days after the death of Jim Robson, a keeper who was trampled and crushed by one of the three Asian elephants currently kept at the site in Regent's Park.
The zoo authorities said, though, that the move was not a reaction to Robson's death but part of a long-standing plan, and the announcement was being made now because of the heightened focus on the elephants in the aftermath of the tragedy.
The three animals, Dilberta, the female that killed Robson, Mya and Layang-Layang, are to be transferred to much more spacious rural quarters in the zoo's sister park at Whipsnade in the Bedfordshire countryside.
Their transfer will mean an end to a tradition of keeping elephants in central London that dates back without a break to 1831. It will disappoint the zoo's supporters and visitors who see the elephants as its most familiar symbols.
The elephant house on the 36-acre (14-hectare) site was opened in 1965 and was designed by the celebrated modernist Sir Hugh Casson.
Elephants Carried Visitors on Their Backs
Over the years many of the Regent's Park elephants were crowd-pleasers and indeed crowd-pullers, which were known by name and carried visitors on their backs.
But in the past 20 years public perceptions about how wild animals should be kept in captivity have undergone substantial change.
Animal rights campaigners have challenged the very concept of zoos, while zoos themselves have accepted that, if animals are to be kept at all, they must have conditions as close to nature as possible, and the justification must be for conservation and education rather than just display.
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