New York City’s last remaining elephant may soon be heading down south to a 3,000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Tennessee.<\/p>\n
The Bronx Zoo is considering transferring its 57-year-old Asian elephant Patty following the death of another elephant named Happy in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n Officials with the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, said they traveled to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee last month to assess its suitability for Patty.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that we feel that it would be the right move for her, and the risks would be outweighed by the potential gains,\u201d Bronx Zoo Interim Director Craig Piper said in an interview.<\/p>\n The announcement comes after a high-profile court battle<\/a> involving Happy and years of pressure from animal rights groups. Zoo officials said they\u2019re weighing whether to transport the aging elephant who\u2019s lived in the Bronx for decades with a dedicated team of keepers and veterinary staff against the possibility of more space and other elephants to socialize with.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that we do the best thing for Patty,\u201d Piper said.<\/p>\n The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits and oversees institutions that keep animals in the U.S., strongly recommends against keeping a single female elephant. Elephants are highly social animals that typically live in herds organized around a matriarch.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial animals should be in a social setting,\u201d said Association of Zoos and Aquariums President Dan Ashe, who was the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Obama. The association grants variances in certain cases, like to protect the health of an animal.<\/p>\n Elephants in the Bronx<\/p>\n The Bronx Zoo has kept elephants for over a century. In the early part of the 1900s they were held in the elephant house, a Beaux-Arts style building with a copper dome. In recent years the elephants lived in the open-air Wild Asia section of the zoo, where guests could see them from a monorail ride.<\/p>\n The historic Elephant House at the Bronx Zoo.<\/p>\n NYPL<\/p>\n In 2006, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced they would stop acquiring new elephants and eventually phase out the popular exhibit if the herd ever got down to just one or two elephants. The organization said it would dedicate its resources to wild elephant conservation<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n The zoo also had to separate its elephants after an outburst of violence within the herd. Happy\u2019s sister Grumpy died in 2002 after she was attacked by Patty and another elephant named Maxine, according to court records. Maxine died in 2018. In recent years Patty and Happy were separated by a fence to prevent another fight.<\/p>\n Zoo officials said they made the \u201cheartbreaking\u201d decision to euthanize Happy in late May, after she showed prolonged symptoms of declining kidney or liver function. They said a necropsy revealed several large inoperable uterine tumors and arthritis.<\/p>\n A right to bodily liberty<\/p>\n Happy had been the subject of what some legal experts call the most important animal rights case of the 21st century. A non-profit organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project in 2018 filed a petition for habeas corpus<\/a> on behalf of Happy, demanding her release from captivity.<\/p>\n It was an unprecedented legal maneuver. The writ of habeas corpus, which stretches back to the 13th century, typically applies to humans challenging the legality of their confinement. The activists argued Happy was an autonomous being who qualified as a \u201cperson\u201d under the law with a right to bodily liberty.<\/p>\n Happy\u2019s case went all the way to New York\u2019s highest court. The New York Court of Appeals ultimately sided with the Bronx Zoo in 2022 in a 5-2 decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n But animal rights advocates saw the dissents as a sign the legal tide was turning in their favor.<\/p>\n In one of the dissents, Judge Rowan Wilson, now the court\u2019s chief justice, said that Happy displayed remarkable cognitive and emotional capacities, and that \u201cthose qualities coupled with the circumstances of her particular confinement establish a prima facie case that her present confinement is unjust.\u201d<\/p>\n There is just one remaining elephant at The Bronx Zoo.<\/p>\n Walter Wuthmann\/Gothamist<\/p>\n Harvard Law Professor and New Yorker Staff Writer Jill Lepore said the two dissenting opinions were a significant development for the animal rights movement in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201c[They] will continue to be cited and I think have already had influence on other cases around the world,\u201d Lepore said in an interview.<\/p>\n Happy was also the first elephant to ever empirically display mirror self-recognition, a key indicator of self-awareness.<\/p>\n In 2005 a group of researchers from Columbia and Emory universities ran a series of tests with the elephants at the Bronx Zoo. In what\u2019s known as the mark test, the researchers drew two \u201cX\u2019s\u201d above the elephants\u2019 eyes, one in white paint and one in invisible ink.<\/p>\n Happy \u201cpassed\u201d the test by approaching the mirror and tapping the white X on her own face 12 times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Happy’s ability to recognize herself by tapping the white X on her face was part of a 2005 study.<\/p>\n PNAS<\/p>\n Patty and Maxine did not pass the mark test but showed other \u201cself-directed behavior\u201d like bringing food over and eating in front of the mirror. Previously mirror self-recognition had only been seen in chimpanzees and dolphins.<\/p>\n Patty is now the only surviving elephant from that experiment and the last at the Bronx Zoo.<\/p>\n The last one<\/p>\n The Association of Zoos and Aquariums usually requires that zoos keep a minimum of three female elephants. But a zoo with one elephant can apply for a variance.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s definitely a scenario where the Bronx Zoo could say the best thing for Patty is to leave her where she is,\u201d Ashe said. He said the Bronx Zoo\u2019s veterinary and care staff \u201c\u200aare among the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a growing trend of major zoos choosing to end their elephant programs. The Los Angeles Zoo closed<\/a> its elephant exhibit last year. The Oakland Zoo sent its last elephant<\/a> to the Tennessee sanctuary in 2024.<\/p>\n The animal rights activists who sued over Happy\u2019s conditions continue to press the Bronx Zoo to transfer Patty, calling her captivity an \u201cinjustice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThe Nonhuman Rights Project is calling on the Bronx Zoo to send Patty to a sanctuary,\u201d Executive Director Christopher Berry said.<\/p>\n Zoo officials said they\u2019re not responding to any outside influence in assessing whether to relocate Patty, but evaluating what\u2019s best for the elephant.<\/p>\n Piper, the zoo\u2019s interim director, said he and three other members of the elephant care team traveled to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee in June to tour the grounds, assess the facilities, and meet with staff.<\/p>\n