Elephants live longer in wild, study finds
As reported by the Associated Press and the Seattle P-I:
Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Myanmar. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life spans twice that or more of their relatives in zoos.
Animal care activists have campaigned in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space.
“This study validates what we’ve been saying,” said Nancy Pennington, a co-founder of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants. Pennington said the three elephants currently kept by Seattle’s Woodland Park should be transferred to The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., which is on 2,700 acres of land, while Woodland Park has one acre set aside for its elephants.
Read the full story in the Seattle P-I.
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