THAILAND AUSTRALIA ELEPHANT TUSSLE

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Aussie Zoo Hearing Puts Asian Elephants on Hold

 

Stephanie Peatling in Sydney

for National Geographic News

 

October 12, 2005

Two hours west of Bangkok, Thailand, on the Kanchanaburi campus of Mahidol

University, eight Asian elephants are waiting.

 

For nearly a year the group of pachyderms has been packed and ready to begin a

new life in Australia.

 

 

The Australian government has approved their importation, effectively giving

them visas to enter the country and set up home in custom-made quarters at

Sydney's Taronga Zoo and the Melbourne Zoo.

 

But a coalition of animal welfare groups argues there is no conservation benefit

in moving the elephants to Australia. This week the groups will challenge the

government's decision in court.

 

The groups say that local zoos have no record in breeding elephants. They also

charge that if the zoos were concerned with the animals' welfare, they would

contribute the tens of millions of Australian dollars being spent on their

enclosures directly to conservation programs.

 

Elephants' Day in Court

 

News of the eight elephants moving to Australia became controversial almost as

soon as it was announced in March 2004.

 

Protests by animal welfare groups were eventually dismissed by the federal

government, which approved the elephants' importation in July on the grounds

that establishing a regional breeding program would help conserve the threatened

species.

 

But the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Humane Society International,

and the Australian branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to

Animals (RSPCA) is challenging that decision.

 

The groups say the zoos will not be able to adequately care for the elephants.

The president of the RSPCA, Hugh Wirth, says breeding rates of elephants are

higher in their native countries, and an Australian breeding program is likely

to be unsuccessful.

 

No Australian zoo has ever successfully bred an Asian elephant.

 

" This plan is simply a case of admitting they have failed to breed their

existing elephants and getting some new ones so they can keep trying, " Wirth

said.

 

" Furthermore, this breeding program will require much closer and more frequent

handling of these elephants than previously undertaken in order to conduct the

invasive artificial insemination procedures required. "

 

While the RSPCA stresses it is not an animal rights group or opposed to zoos,

Wirth is concerned about whether importing the elephants to Australia would

deliver a conservation benefit.

 

 

" If we continue to take elephants from their home in Asia to put on display in

zoos, where we know they don't breed and they suffer greatly, then it's true

that the only elephants our children will know will be elephants in a zoo, "

Wirth said.

 

The tens of millions of dollars being spent on building enclosures for the

elephants would be better spent in the animals' native countries where few funds

are available for local conservation efforts, he said.

 

Zoo Support

 

With the matter now subject to legal proceedings, the zoos are no longer

commenting.

 

But a spokesperson for Taronga Zoo, Lisa Keen, says a keeper recently returned

from Thailand, where the waiting elephants were reported to be in good

condition.

 

" The elephants have learned to live without restraint and enjoy socializing and

playing together, " Keen said.

 

" Having been together for a year now, the keepers have bonded closely with the

elephants, and we are very hopeful to bring them all home as soon as possible. "

 

The zoos argue the move is necessary because there are only 34,000 Asian

elephants left in the wild in 13 countries. Captive herds need to be built up in

case the numbers in the wild continue to drop.

 

Zoo officials say they will support the Kuiburi National Park in Thailand, home

to the largest remaining wild elephant group. They will also fund global

positioning equipment to monitor the animals in the wild, and will help raise

money for elephant conservation programs in other countries.

 

Meanwhile a cooperative conservation program has been set up that aims to

establish a regional herd in Australia to be used for breeding, educating the

public, and contributing to conservation projects in the animals' native

countries.

 

In an interview last month with the Sydney Morning Herald, Taronga Zoo's

director, Guy Cooper, said he was annoyed at suggestions that Australia must

" bring in elephants for commercial reasons. "

 

" We're not going to save wildlife by going round with a begging bowl on their

behalf, " he said. " We have to prove that something is worth saving and that any

investment in [the animal's] conservation is well spent. "

 

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