The city zoo and an advocacy group agree that a 47-year-old man is not fit to travel. Set the Wild Fre
A recent medical exam found that 47-year-old Asian elephant Lucy at the Edmonton Valley Zoo can only breathe through her mouth and is not fit to travel.
The problem with Lucy’s breathing is worse than the experts who came to look at it thought it would be, the City of Edmonton said in a news release on Tuesday.
Even though there have been calls over the years to move Lucy to an elephant sanctuary, she will spend her last years at the zoo.
For Lucy to stay in Edmonton as a single elephant, Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums needs an outside evaluation of her every year. The city said that the most recent evaluation gave “great insights into Lucy’s health and wellness, including medical information that had not been known before.”
Dr. Frank Goeritz, Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, Dr. Patricia London, and Ingo Schmidinger, all experts in elephant care and veterinary medicine, did the evaluation.
Free the Wild has put out three reports that show what they found.
Goeritz and Hildebrandt wrote in their report, “Not only is she too old to travel, but she also wouldn’t be able to handle her new environment, which would include a new habitat, new caretakers, and other elephants.”
Not unanimou
Not all of the experts who came did agree that Lucy is not ready to go on a trip.
London wrote in her report that Lucy is being treated more like a pet and not like the wild elephant she is.
“It’s also very likely that the cold, dry air is making her breathing problems worse.”
Lucy breathes through her mouth for the first time in 2009, when an endoscopic examination of her trunk showed that her nasal passage was narrowing.
Since then, her breathing problems have gotten worse. Now, she has “very severe” hypoxemia and hypercapnia, which means her blood and tissues have low oxygen levels and high carbon dioxide levels.
The real cause of the problem has not yet been found.
The experts also found a large leiomyoma, which is a type of uterine tumor that is common in female elephants that have never given birth. The tumor is being treated with a vaccine that the veterinarians who have been there have suggested.
Since the assessment was done four months ago, changes to Lucy’s diet and medical care have helped her lose 326 kilograms, according to a press release.
Goeritz and Hildebrandt came to the conclusion that Lucy might have another four to eight years to live and “would not survive without people.”
“The main goal is to keep Lucy busy and interested for the rest of her life and to take good care of her,” they wrote.
London, on the other hand, said that Lucy could live for at least 15 more years and suggested that she be moved to an elephant sanctuary in the United States.
“Both the cold and the lack of sunlight in Edmonton make it a cruel and unfriendly place for an Asian elephant to live,” London wrote.
“Forcing people to walk on snow and ice when it’s -15 C is almost crazy.”
Lucy was born in the wild and moved to Edmonton, Alberta, from Sri Lanka when she was two years old.
In 2020, the zoo slowly stopped doing things for the public.
Gary Dewar, the director of the zoo, said that Lucy’s caretakers are committed to her health.
“The staff at the Edmonton Valley Zoo have worked hard for 45 years to give Lucy the best care and home she deserves,” Dewar said in a news release from the city.
“We will work hard to make sure she keeps getting great care.”
Dewar said that the zoo will keep an eye on Lucy’s weight and health in general, as well as her housing, enrichments, and daily routines.
He said that some of the experts will come back to do follow-up checks later this year.