Editorial: Pricey plan for pachyderms

Visitors to Auckland Zoo regularly rate the two elephants, Kashin, 40 and Burma, 26, among their favourite attractions. But Kashin is not expected to live more than another five years and because elephants are extremely social creatures, Burma cannot be left alone; a replacement must be sought.

The zoo's response is to spend $13.5 million to establish a herd of Asian elephants and to annex some 22,000 sq m of forest and parkland to let them roam.

Perhaps Auckland City councillors, who gave this ridiculous plan the go-ahead this week, forgot that they are wrestling with a 10-year budgetary plan which will allow for "affordable progress", including improvements to footpaths, parks and libraries.

Doug Armstrong, who chairs the Finance and Strategy Committee, says he wants to "find every possible saving and pass these onto ratepayers". It seems not to have occurred to him that creating a new Serengeti among the pines on the zoo's eastern border is not necessarily consistent with that mission statement.

Nobody would want to condemn Burma to the loneliness of solo life. But sorting him out a playmate doesn't mean moving into the elephant-farming business. The people working to save threatened native fauna - including the hard-pressed members of Auckland City's human species - could do a lot with $13.5 million.