They feared it might find its way back to Seattle but the pluses " outweighed the negatives," they said, and they took a risk.īesides, the zoo industry's governing body, the national Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), had privately approved Seattle's plan. They knew that the virus had infected elephants inside the Springfield, Mo., zoo where they sent Hansa's mother to be bred. The virus, believed to spread by contact, could lie dormant for years, then move so swiftly it could destroy internal organs in hours. They suspected an elephant herpes virus known as EEHV that had begun ravaging young elephants at a handful of U.S.
But 6 ½ years later, when she was found dead on the elephant-barn floor early one morning, zoo officials knew their gamble had failed. In 2000, an Asian female named Hansa was born at Woodland Park Zoo, instantly bewitching the public. It took decades, but Seattle finally got its own baby elephant. Despite the zoo industry's insistence otherwise, by almost any measure, it has failed. Zoos would help preserve and propagate elephants, they explained.įifty years later, The Seattle Times set out to examine how that effort has turned out. The effort would be good not only for zoos, officials insisted, it would be good for the Asian and African species that were under enormous pressure in their natural habitats. Across the country, the race to produce baby elephants was on. It was clear that elephants, the world's largest land mammals, were indeed "glamour beasts," box-office stars that would help America's zoos through the 20th century and into the 21st. Cash receipts skyrocketed, and so did donations. Little Packy was everybody's baby, and attendance at the Oregon Zoo soared as visitors from all over the world waited in half-mile-long lines to see him. They experience grief and love, pain and fear. Elephants live in families, exhibit memory and possess surprising self-awareness, such as recognizing themselves in a mirror. The public seemed to feel a unique connection to elephants, gentle giants who exhibit many humanlike qualities. The country got caught up in a Packy craze, with toys, clothes and books bearing the cute baby's image flying off the shelves. Life magazine devoted an 11-page spread to the birth. In April 1962, at the Portland zoo, Belle gave birth to a male named Packy, and an international sensation was ignited. Unaware, they transferred the pachyderm pair to a zoo in Portland, under a sharing agreement. Zookeepers didn't know that elephant gestation takes 22 months, though, and they missed the pregnancy altogether. It had been more than 40 years since an elephant had been born in North America, and then only at a circus - never in a zoo.īut in a ramshackle exhibit yard at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, in the summer of 1960, the extraordinary occurred: A 15,000-pound male, Thonglaw, mated with a much smaller female, Belle, and Belle became pregnant. The octopus, meanwhile, was given a Potato Head toy to play with, filled with food.As the 1960s dawned, few Americans had ever seen a baby elephant. During the holidays, they hung up twinkling lights, and they even had the occasional disco ball day. They hung up mirrors around the exhibit, so instead of seeing humans they’d see themselves.
“Every day each animal will receive one to three different types of enrichment,” Theiss said (echoing the advice that I received from my therapist for not growing depressed while in quarantine).įor example, the aquarium hung large sheets up butcher paper around the underwater dome, with cutouts at various spots, then ran to different holes in a sort of hide-and-seek game with Flaherty. To their delight, Flaherty the fur seal came down to visit, and they would sometimes spend lunchtime interacting through the glass, chasing each other from one end to the other.Ĭaretakers found themselves scrambling to develop more games and activities for the animals so they wouldn’t grow bored. But with the aquarium empty, they began to have lunch in the underwater dome. When guests are present, animal caretakers don’t eat lunch in public areas. After training her with some fish, Aniak will now follow a finger point or a buoy on the end of a pole up onto the x-ray plate, and wait patiently while a box is slipped on top to get a good look at her bone health.įood also provided some unexpected connections during quarantine.
“It’s based on positive reinforcement, which is food,” Theiss says, which, same.