Pregnant elephant saga reveals more Taronga Zoo management flaws

The pregnant elephant story http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/14/2162378.htm that broke last week certainly provided fodder for a few talk back hosts http://www.smh.com.au/news/mike-carlton/toxic-tuckey--a-sorry-specimen-all-but-extinct/2008/02/15/1202760598516.html?page=2 and editorials. Much of it was amusing but these comments should not detract from an examination of this latest serious breach of animal welfare protocols at Taronga Zoo http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/taronga-zoo.aspx.

First off a bit of background to my involvement with this issue. On Tuesday 12 February 2008 I received information alleging that one of the Asian elephants at Taronga http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/taronga-zoo/news/media-releases/taronga's-elephants-enjoying-life-in-sydney.aspx was pregnant and the Taronga Zoo management was not going public with the story as the elephant was too young to be in the breeding program.

I checked out this report with people associated with Taronga Zoo who in recent years have raised their concerns with me about the death of a pregnant rhinoceros and other zoo management issues.

When the report was confirmed by a few sources I then publicly called http://lee.greens.org.au/index.php/content/view/2419/50/ on Taronga Zoo Director, Guy Cooper,  to comment on these developments.

It took Mr Cooper and the Environment Minister Phil Koperberg twenty-four hours to come up with their good news version of why a small immature elephant was pregnant.

But meantime the evidence was mounting that the elephant concerned, Thong Dee, was too young to be in the breeding program that Taronga agreed to as part of the import agreement for these Asian elephants.

The RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Humane Society International in a media release on Thursday 14 February [full text below] spelt out how there will be little conservation benefit from this pregnancy.

Dr Bidda Jones, the RSPCA Chief Scientist, stated “Still birth, infanticide and rejection of calves are the main causes of infant mortality and Thong Dee’s age and lack of maternal and social experience make this pregnancy very risky.”

Will Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation
www.bornfree.org.uk, in a letter in response to a Timesonline article http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3369550.ece sites papers that reveal the elephant is underage for a breeding program. [full text below]

Ms Erica Martin, the Asia Pacific Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, did not mince her words about the huge financial benefit the zoo will gain from this pregnant elephant: “Essentially the young female is the zoo’s very own cash cow.”

This comment helps us to identify the events that have brought about this pregnancy.

While the NSW government continues to put some public money into these zoos there are plenty of signals from the government that the main job of zoo management is to boost revenue.

The appointment of Guy Cooper http://www.abc.net.au/sydney/stories/s1573849.htm, the former head of Johnson Wax, as Director and CEO of Sydney's Taronga Zoo and Dubbo's Western Plains Zoo, has seen the commercial side of zoo operations increase.

Criticism http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=259434 of this approach increased sharply when Mr Cooper announced plans to import elephants from Thailand.

When the Asian elephants eventually arrived at Taronga their day to day care appears to have been driven by ways to maximise the number of paying customers rather than the needs of the animals. The management plan for breeding elephants was not followed and instead all the Asian elephants were allowed to mix together.

This was an immediate crowd puller. Seeing elephants cavorting together is obviously delightful for the public. And the result is that the youngest of the elephants is now pregnant.

The zoo’s own promotional book “Taronga’s Elephants” describes how in their natural habitat male elephants like Gung would not have mixed with the immature females. “In the wild an adolescent bull elephant will be separated from the herd by the large females.”

At Taronga that elephant social support structure is not in place. The zoo management therefore had responsibility to keep the young bull elephant away from the immature females. They failed to do this.

When I spoke publicly about this matter I was disappointed that Mr Cooper again tried to make out that in voicing my concerns about zoo management issues I was criticising zookeepers.   This is certainly not the case and when this story about the pregnant elephant broke I again spoke of the dedicated and hard work of zookeepers.

I worked as a zookeeper at Taronga Zoo and Regents Park Zoo in London in the 1970s.  I know from my personal experience and from my ongoing contact with people associated with zookeepers that zoos too often suffer from a sharp divide between management and keepers.

I know first hand that zookeepers maintain high standards in meeting the needs of the animals they care for. The problems come with zoo management who too often put commercial interests before those of the animals.

Hopefully this first elephant pregnancy in Australia is successful.

But lessons need to be learnt here so that the Taronga Zoo management do not continue to flout the animal care and breeding programs that they have signed onto. In granting an import licence for these Asian elephants the Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal set out clear conditions for their care.

As Mr Cooper has failed to abide by the conditions I have asked http://lee.greens.org.au/index.php/content/view/2420/50/ the federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to investigate the possible breach of the import licence conditions granted to Taronga Zoo.