The North Carolina Zoo has the oldest elephant in North America
The Space of a Zoo
Over the summer, I went to 4 different zoos including The Riverbank Zoo of Columbia, The North Carolina Zoo, The Nashville Zoo, and The Shenandoah Zoo. Besides the North Carolina Zoo, all the zoos' enclosures for the elephants were extremely small (Riverbank no longer had elephants, but their previous enclosure was turned into a rhino enclosure with no changes in space).
Need for Space
Elephants are nomadic species. They are constantly moving around in their territories, exploring the world around them to find more different foods. Breeding herds can walk up to 9km a day, and bachelors even more. Their home territories can extend up to about 118,403,014,584 square feet. Zoos are incapable of providing this much space. They have a limited amount of space to fit in a variety of creatures and having such a big amount of space for elephants would not only prevent guests from viewing the animals but also limit their ability to house other animals. Zoos are required to have at least 400 square feet per elephant, and the average amount of elephants a zoo in North America and Europe has is about 4.28 elephants. That means a zoo enclosure is usually only 1,712 square feet, not even 0.000001% of the space they would have in the wild.
Nashville Zoo Enclosure
North Carolina Zoo
50%
of captive elephant's deaths are caused by foot/joint problems
Nashville Zoo Enclosure
Why do they need so much space?
Walking is one of the primary ways for elephants to get proper exercise, and it's also one of their main ways to get proper stimulation. Through exploring their environment, foraging for food, and overall enjoying new scenery with their herd, elephants are constantly taking in important stimulus that keeps their brains healthy and active. When they don't have this space, they have higher levels of stress and begin to damage their brain through inactivity, much like any muscle.
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An elephant's enclosure's lack of proper space and natural footing causes them to be more susceptible to arthritis and other joint and foot injuries. The floors of indoor elephant enclosures are often concrete softened by hay, but these enclosures are hard to properly sanitize daily. When these floors are covered in urine and feces (as they often are), elephants develop infections around their foot pads. An infected pad can't support an elephant’s weight, leading it to more diseases and arthritis.
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Small, unsanitized spaces are also a breeding ground for diseases. When each individual elephant is so big and their space is barely sufficient, when one elephant gets a cold, the whole herd will. However, their lack of exercise—both mental and physical—causes them to be less resilient to said diseases, making them more lethal to zoo elephants.