Despite Recent Changes Made to AZA Elephant Care Guidelines, Captive Elephants’ Quality of Life Will Not Improve

In 2022, we published a report, A Legacy of Shame, which outlined the broad range of negative impacts associated with keeping elephants in captivity at zoos. We highlighted glaring, widespread issues (many of which were documented by zoos themselves), including shortened life expectancies, poor reproductive success, high calf mortality, a variety of physical problems, and a range of behavioral abnormalities among elephants in captivity around the world. Over four years later in 2026, and despite over one thousand elephants continuing to suffer in captivity globally, we have sadly seen no meaningful changes in the zoo industry in the United States despite our urgent pleas.

The AZA Updates Its Elephant Care Standards

For example, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA- widely considered the highest standard accreditation agency in North America) recently published a newly updated version of their accreditation elephant care standards. In general, many of the updates reflect the new UK standards for elephant care in terms of attempting to mimic wild social herd dynamics by recommending that institutions maintain multigenerational herds and not separate females from their mothers when possible.

One revised section in their elephant care standards mandates temperature requirements in places that have temperatures outside the natural range of elephants’ natural habitats (which accounts most of the northern U.S., where temperatures regularly plummet below 40°F for days, weeks, or months at a time): “Elephants kept outdoors when temperatures are below 40°F overnight must be provided with adequate shelter, supplemental heat, indoor access… Elephants exposed to daytime temperatures below 40°F for longer than 60 minutes must be monitored no less than hourly to assess for signs of hypothermia. Indoor areas must be heated to a minimum temperature of 55°F. To accommodate young, sick, or debilitated elephants, at least one space must be capable of maintaining a temperature of at least 70°F and be free of drafts.” While these temperature mandates are unarguably crucial to ensure that elephants stay as healthy and comfortable as possible in captive conditions, it is somewhat alarming that zoos had not previously stipulated these requirements for basic animal care and welfare in the past.

Keeping Elephants at Zoos in Unnatural Climates Has Contributed to Elephant Deaths

Several elephants kept at zoos in the U.S. died from complications likely related to temperatures that were too low for too long. For example, two elephants named Tatima and Peaches died at the Lincoln Park Zoo over a span of less than a year after being moved to Chicago from California to make room for the controversial ‘cull orphans;’ a group of young elephants exported from Swaziland to the San Diego Zoo in 2003 after losing their parents to poaching. The San Diego Zoo decided to move both long-term resident elephants out to make room for them. Both elephants barely lasted two years in Chicago; Tatima died at 35 years of age from a bacterial infection similar to tuberculosis and was found collapsed on the floor when keepers arrived in the morning. Peaches died just three months later, reportedly due to “old age” at 55, despite wild African elephants living up to 65 years old and zookeepers noting that she was “already ailing” before the transfer between zoos. Peach’s death later fueled debate on the impacts that the stress of cold-weather housing can have on older elephants.

Wankie, another long-term resident at the San Diego Zoo transferred to a different zoo to make room for the ‘cull orphans,’ tragically died in transit from California to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to In Defense of Animals, Wankie was secretly loaded onto a truck on a particularly cold night in April 2005. Ignoring the fact that she was still recovering from colic (a painful condition that can cause an elephant to collapse), the San Diego Zoo moved forward with the transfer. During the trip, she was found kneeling in the truck, a potentially dangerous situation, somewhere around the midway point of the 22-hour trip, with the outdoor temperature between 20-to-30-degrees and no heat in the transport truck. She was euthanized upon arrival at the Utah zoo due to her condition. A final report showed that Wankie died of the same bacterial lung infection that killed Tatima, and that the infection coupled with the “stress of shipping” and temperature drop may have caused her collapse.

Wanda and Winky died in 2005 when the Detroit Zoo voluntarily moved their remaining elephants to a warmer sanctuary (PAWS, located in San Andreas, California) and closed its elephant exhibit due to the challenges of providing appropriate care during the frigid Michigan winters. This transfer made the Detroit Zoo the first to voluntarily send its elephants to a sanctuary because of the harsh climate. Both elephants suffered from chronic foot problems and arthritis from years of restricted movement in captivity and enduring such harsh temperatures year after year. Sadly, despite being moved to a sanctuary in a warmer climate, for Wanda and Winky, it was too little too late; Winky died in 2008 at age 56 and Wanda died in 2015 at age 57, both from complications related to severe arthritis, for which they were euthanized.

Lastly, after living at the Oklahoma City Zoo, Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri, and the Woodland Park Zoo in Missouri and suffering years of abuse from over one hundred invasive artificial insemination attempts and behavioral instability from aggressive social group placement, Chai died at the Oklahoma Zoo in 2016 after being exposed to temperatures near freezing. She was found dead in her yard early on a cold morning in January 2016. A post-mortem revealed that Chai had died from a combination of systemic blood infection and severe fat loss. Chai’s death spurred watchdog groups to question if she was properly protected from the cold.

Overall, it seems that the colder temperatures in northern parts of the U.S. may exacerbate the multitude of health issues that elephants in captivity already face, including the foot infections and diseases caused by limited movement restricted by the small enclosure sizes, infection and spread of contagious diseases, poor immune system function, and highly stressful nature of captivity. Adding on to these concerns already affecting captive elephant health and longevity, the AZA updates to captive elephant care standards still do not mandate any minimum enclosure size, now requires all male elephants to be trained for invasive semen collection by the time they reach sexual maturity, and states that while all zoos keeping elephants must contribute towards elephant conservation and research, the criteria by which the AZA judges this contribution is extremely vague and unquantifiable.

Elephants at Zoos Will Continue to Suffer

Despite all the other undocumented and unknown horrors that elephants held captive at zoos around the world face every day, the one thing we know for sure is that elephants at zoos are suffering. They are suffering from not living in the environments in which they evolved to, not having the ability to choose their own social groups, and being denied their freedom. Please help us lower the demand for keeping animals like elephants in captivity for human entertainment and do not visit zoos or aquariums with the hope that we may live to see the day that no more wild animals are imprisoned for reasons we cannot justify.

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,

Devan