Why did the Nashville Zoo get rid of elephants?

Say goodbye to Nashville's elephants, at least temporarily. The Nashville Zoo is relocating three elephants in order to renovate and build a new facility for its African expansion. We place the highest priority on the well-being of each animal in our care, zoo president Rick Schwartz said in a media release.



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Broadly, some elephant experts say urban zoos simply don't have the space that African elephants, who roam extensive distances in the wild to forage for hundreds of pounds of vegetation each day, need for a normal life.

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Belle is the other elephant currently residing at Riverbanks. In June, it was announced that Robin and Belle would be leaving the zoo to find a new herd and to make room for a new rhino exhibit. Davis said the training to prepare for the elephants to move did not cause issues with Robin's health.

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You can have a unique experience with an elephant at 72 AZA-accredited zoos. Visit any of these AZA-accredited zoos today to learn more about elephants, how the zoo is contributing to conservation and what you can do to help.

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In 2006, the Bronx Zoo announced no further elephants would be acquired, a measure taken by other zoos after calls from the public and animal experts stated that elephants do not belong in captivity thus affecting their natural behaviors as social creatures.

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The Sedgwick County Zoo has an African-themed village near the African Veldt section that houses all of the elephants. Located in Wichita, Kansas, the Sedgwick County Zoo has the third-largest elephant habitat in the U.S. The African elephants at the zoo roam freely across more than five acres of space.

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In April 2005 the Detroit Zoo moved elephants Winky and Wanda to the Performing Animal Welfare Society's (PAWS) ARK 2000 Sanctuary in California.

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It wasn't natural for Winky and Wanda to endure the frigid Michigan winters at the zoo. Despite the zoo's best efforts, both elephants suffered from arthritis. They needed freedom. In 2005, after over a decade of living at the zoo, The Detroit Zoo let Winky and Wanda go.

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What do zoos do when a large animal dies? They perform a necropsy – which can take all day for an animal as large as an elephant. They offer grief counseling for the staff. The remains are removed from the compound and cremated.

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Elephants at zoos enjoy interacting with visitors, according to a new study. Research by Harper Adams and Nottingham Trent universities found that the animals' positive behaviours such as social activity increased around visitors, while indicators of boredom decreased.

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After 75 years of housing elephants of all kinds — African elephants, Asian elephants — in 2010 the zoo staff moved its last female African elephant resident, Joyce, from the zoo's Pachyderm House to a California facility where she has lots of room to roam and spend time with companions, which are essential to a ...

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Officials made the decision to “humanely” euthanize the 37-year-old elephant. There were no signs that Penny was ailing, according to zoo officials. That was not the case in December of 2016, when another of the zoo's elephants that was suffering from medical issues was euthanized, The State reported.

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After 25 years at Lion Country Safari, the peaceful pachyderms are moving to other elephant-friendly places in the United States.

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The Philadelphia Zoo's two female African elephants have traded their cramped West Philadelphia home for new digs at a sprawling southwestern Pennsylvania sanctuary run by the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.

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Elephants from Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo were moved to the Oklahoma City Zoo in 2015 after a bruising political and court fight. Activists had wanted the elephants transferred to a sanctuary in California.

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Elephants held at the Monterey Zoo have died under questionable circumstances, including one who was euthanized after being unable to stand due to a painful joint condition and another whose death was hidden from the public but whose necropsy revealed that she had ingested a large amount of sand that blocked and ...

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