MEET OUR OREGON ZOO ELEPHANTS
Captivity is a Terrible Existence
Elephants are some of the most intelligent and social beings on earth. They are also the world’s largest land mammals. In the wild, they can roam up to 30 miles a day. Matriarchal herds stay together for life. Bulls leave the mother at around age 14 and form bachelor herds and then return to the matriarchal herd to mate.
None of these natural activities are possible for elephants in captivity. Their activity is so restricted and their living space so unnatural, that they suffer from lethal illnesses and conditions caused by their confinement. Bobbing heads, swaying and pacing, seen in many of the Oregon Zoo elephants, are signs of extreme stress, depression and boredom.
“There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, an ancient life A force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea.”
-Peter Matthiessen
The Tree Where Man Was Born
MEET OUR OREGON ZOO ELEPHANTS
Samson
Samson was transferred from the Albuquerque Zoo (ABQ Bio Park) in May of 2018. He is a 25 year old 4-ton Asian elephant who was born May 4, 1998, at African Lion Safari in Ontario, Canada, and moved to ABQ BioPark in 2003. ABQ Bio Park is guaranteed every 2nd and 4th calf sired by Samson. Note the contract was signed on November 17, 2017, just a few months after Packy was put down at the zoo.
Deceased
Rama
Rama was a male Asian elephant born on April 1, 1983 at the Oregon Zoo to Packy and Rosy. He was trained to do paintings using his trunk and these paintings were exhibited at the zoo, and some of them were even sold to make money. In 2013, Rama became infected with TB and was being treated with TB drugs and in quarantine. He was declared cured in 2015. In March of 2015, he was euthanized unexpectedly for what the zoo claimed to be complications due to a leg injury he sustained when he was young.
Chendra
Chendra is a 2.3 ton female Asian elephant born in Sabah, Malaysia in 1993. She is the only Borneo pygmy elephant living in the U.S. Malaysian wildlife officials found her wandering – orphaned, alone and hungry – near a palm oil plantation in Borneo. She had wounds on her front legs and left eye, which ultimately left her blind in that eye. Perhaps because she is a different sub-species of Asian elephant, she is sometimes shunned by the others. She has been diagnosed with severe stereotypical behavior and has been seen walking in circles. After going through a bout of tuberculosis infection whose medications left her with retinal damage in her one working eye, and a pregnancy miscarriage that has left her broken, she is in poor health.
Samudra
Samudra was born on August 23, 2008 to parents Rose-Tu and Tusko. His mother Rose-Tu did not apparently welcome him into the world as she tried to kill him in an act of infanticide. The keepers saved him, and it can only be speculated why his mother behaved in a way that is not seen in wild herds. Samudra is now 15. It is not known if he or the other male, Samson was the one who impregnated Chendra. But he will soon be shipped off to Albuquerque zoo for breeding purposes.
Deceased
Tusko
Tusko was born in the wild in 1971. It is not known exactly when he was captured and sent to the US but his first zoo was in Florida. Soon after he started his long and sordid history of being exploited in circuses and by circus trainers. His circus life lasted for all but 8 years that he spent at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. He came to the Oregon Zoo in 2005 from Have Trunk will Travel (HTWT) He exhibited stereotypical behavior as so many zoo elephants do and suffered from a host of zoo-related conditions, including TB which he contracted in 2014. He had a serious leg injury, which contributed to the decision to euthanize him on December 22, 2015.
Deceased
Lily
Lily was born on November 30, 2012 to parents Rose-Tu and Tusko. She and Tusko were both part of a controversial contract the zoo had with the notorious elephant trainers Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT). Tusko was purchased from HTWT for breeding and every third calf born was promised to HTWT, so Lily was supposed to be sent to that facility. However, the Seattle Times exposed this
contract to the public, and the resulting outrage forced the zoo to buy back its $400,000 contract. At one day shy of her 6 th birthday on November 29, 2018, Lily was euthanized due to EEHV1A Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses which kills so many young elephants in zoos.
contract to the public, and the resulting outrage forced the zoo to buy back its $400,000 contract. At one day shy of her 6 th birthday on November 29, 2018, Lily was euthanized due to EEHV1A Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses which kills so many young elephants in zoos.
Rose-Tu
Rose-Tu was born at the Oregon Zoo on August 31, 1994 to parents Me-Tu and Hugo. She had a twin who was stillborn. Rose-Tu gave birth to two calves, Samudra in 2008 and Lily in 2012. Lily died at age 6 in 2018 from the EEHV virus that kills so many young elephants in captivity. When Samudra was born, Rose-Tu tried to stomp on him and the keepers had to rush in to pull him away from her. This attempt at infanticide is not seen in the wild but is found many times in captivity. Rose-Tu was severely beaten with a bull hook at 5 years old by a former keeper, Fred Marion, who was eventually fired after a legal action brought against the zoo by Animal Legal Defense Fund after an investigation by the USDA. However, this abuse would never have come to light had a visitor not reported what they witnessed.
Shine
Shine was born on December 26, 1982 to parents Packy and Pet. She had 11 siblings, all now dead, and one presumed dead who is missing, Judy. She’s easily identified by her shorter tail, due to Samson biting off and amputating it. Shine has shown aggressive behavior towards the lone Borneo elephant Chendra during Chendra’s first years at the zoo, and occasionally even recently, when she caused a facial injury when pushing her against a metal feeder. This highlights the challenge of trying to integrate elephants of different species (Borneo pygmy elephants like Chendra are a subspecies of Asian elephants). Shine has never been successfully impregnated. She tested positive for Tuberculosis in 2017 and underwent treatment.
Deceased
Packy
Packy was the first elephant born at the Oregon Zoo, on April 14, 1962 to parents Belle and Thonglaw. As the first elephant to be born in the western hemisphere in 44 years, he drew a lot of attention and the Zoo even chose his face as its logo. He suffered from Tuberculosis and the last years of his life were spent in isolation. Against the wishes of the public and even his zookeepers, he was euthanized on February 9, 2017, a couple of months short of reaching 55. He was subjected to invasive reproductive procedures such as electro-stimulation to collect semen, and even made to impregnate his sister Hanako, in the Zoo’s mission to breed in captivity. Of his seven offspring, “Shine” is the only survivor today.
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BABY ELEPHANTS DEAD
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SOLD TO PRIVATE BUYERS; DEAD
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SOLD TO UNSPECIFIED BUYERS; BELIEVED DEAD
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SHIPPED TO OTHER ZOOS; DEAD
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SOLD TO CIRCUSES; DEAD
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EUTHANIZED AT THE OREGON ZOO
Elephants do not live in zoos.
They die in zoos.
In the Oregon Zoo, Asian elephants die by age 24 on average. Shine, at 41, is the oldest, and suffers from foot disease. In the wild, they do not contract the disease, and live up to age 70.
Update
Since our campaign to free the elephants began, five Oregon Zoo elephants have died. Tusko and Rama, both suffering from tuberculosis, died as a direct result of captivity. Packy, afflicted with many of the same illnesses and conditions including drug resistant TB, was euthanized in 2017. A herpes virus killed Lily at the tender age of six. Chendra miscarried in 2019.
