Editorial: Drop the elephant expansion plan

Burma at Auckland Zoo. Photo / Nigel Marple

Let's hope that the proposal to expand Auckland Zoo to accommodate a herd of as many as 10 elephants is dead in the water.

The plan came under fire this week from some of the most powerful voices in wildlife welfare.

The APN community paper The Aucklander obtained a draft of a letter to the new Auckland Council urging that the expansion plan be abandoned.

The letter was signed by some of the seriously heavy hitters in the business, including the heads of the wildlife division of Britain's RSPCA and the Born Free Foundation. Other groups, here and in Australia, Africa and the US, have indicated they support the move.

They want the new council to bin the decision by the now-defunct Auckland City Council to spend an estimated $13 million on expanding the zoo into 22,000sq m of the adjoining Western Springs Park to cater for an elephant herd that would, over time, number 10.

Several factors militate against the idea, the wildlife professionals say, not least that the cost is grossly underestimated.

First, urban zoos are no place for elephants, which evolution has designed to roam widely. Further, they argue, it is unethical to uproot more animals from their Asian habitats. And keeping elephants is expensive: the plan could add $1 million a year to the zoo's running costs.

One of the reasons advanced for the plan is that Burma, bereft by the death of her companion Kashin in August last year, needs mates. But the letter kicks that idea out of the park, too.

Yes, the signatories say, elephants are sociable animals - which is why they want Burma sent to live with other elephants in an open-range zoo or sanctuary overseas.

The response to the death of Kashin attested to the public affection for elephants, which are magic creatures, but the zoo's remarkable popularity does not depend on them.

There are more important things to spend hard-pressed ratepayers' money on in times like these, and the letter powerfully argues that even if we could afford it, we shouldn't do it. The idea should be scuttled, now.