Elephant Management In Zoos

Heard quite an interesting discussion on the radio yesterday. A professor from Perth University has been investigating the lives and deaths of four thousand captive elephants from European Zoos over the last 40 or so years.

Now the BBC (God Bless ‘Em) started the discussion with the horror headlines that the life of a captive elephant is guaranteed to lead to an early death, even compared with those living in the logging camps of India or subject to the risks of life in the wild. They pointed out that Blair Drummond Safari Park had three elephants in their park, and had been asked to come on the show; but had declined. The tone of the comments led me to believe that they felt that the Safari park was behaving badly or even abusing their animals.

An association of Zoo Keepers was represented, and they declined to disagree with the results of the investigations, however, they did point out that the results were from the previous forty years, and they had been learning all along, and that now they were in a much better position to manage elephants. I couldn’t help but feel that the presenter was a little disappointed at the responses, and she returned for a last comment to the professor.

And what do you know? The said professor said “Blair Drummond Safari Park has done a wonderful job of rehabilitating the three rescue elephants they have, and the animal’s behaviour is now very similar to that found in wild elephants…”

I do feel that the Beeb often has it in for the people it interviews, and is not doing the interviews for interest, but rather to present people in a poor light.

What do you feel?