New IDA Survey Shows Scores Of Elephants Spend Winters Warehoused In Cruel Conditions
This week IDA released an unprecedented survey showing that scores of elephants are held in zoos in cold climates, where frigid winter temperatures force the Earth’s largest land mammals indoors into tiny concrete cells for the vast majority of each day during the winter.
Cold weather dramatically increases the suffering that elephants already endure in zoos, where increased indoor confinement adds to the physical and psychological problems caused by lack of space and mental stimulation. These include painful and often-fatal foot disease and arthritis, and aberrant behaviors such as aggression and repetitive rocking and swaying.
 Yet 31 out of 75 AZA-accredited zoos holding elephants in the U.S. and Canada are situated in cold climates, with three out of four of those zoos averaging mean temperatures below freezing for two to five consecutive months each year. For elephants, this means countless long hours spent standing on cold, hard concrete in barren and often windowless cages.
While some zoos may allow elephants outside during cold weather, it generally is only for brief periods – sometimes as little as half an hour. On the exceptional warm day, they may be allowed outside longer. However, the tiny fraction of time elephants will spend outdoors during the winter cannot compensate for the many long monotonous hours spent inside, where elephants can be held in spaces as small as 20 x 20 square feet – about the size of two-car garage.
Elephants typically hail from semi-arid savannas and tropical and subtropical forests, where they walk tens of miles a day in huge home ranges, and are almost constantly engaged in a variety of behaviors and social interactions. Designed for temperate climates, elephants have a limited ability to adjust to extremes in temperature and are at risk if subjected to consistently cold temperatures.
No matter how much daily care, veterinary treatment and enrichment zoos provide for elephants, it just cannot compensate for lack of space, unnatural conditions, and, especially, an unsuitable climate that cruelly forces elephants indoors into small cages that severely restrict the healthy movement they need.
If zoos really wish to make progress for elephants, the first step would be to prohibit the display of elephants in facilities located in cold climates.
You can read IDA’s survey report here. Read our press release here.
- If you live in one of the cities included in IDA’s survey, contact the zoo director and express your opposition to keeping elephants in that zoo. If the zoo is city, county or state run, contact your elected officials as well.
- Start a campaign to help the elephants at your city’s zoo. Contact IDA at zoos@idausa.org to get started.
- Be sure to join IDA’s Elephant Task Force, a special group of activists committed to making a difference for elephants in captivity.
- Visit www.HelpElephants.com for more information and all the latest news about elephants in zoos and circuses. You can also read and comment on our Elephant Blog.
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