Forgotten Elephant Watoto, A Life Behind Bars

[red dog 1]

In Defense of Animals
November 21, 2025

She was born in the wilds of Kenya, free to roam and play in a wonderland of enticing sights, sounds, and smells.
Then, at just two years old, Watoto was torn from her family and home and transported across the world to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.

Instead of a vast savannah, she was confined to a 1-acre enclosure, devoid of any trees, grass, or space to roam.
There she would spend the next 43 years pacing endlessly.

[snip]

On August 14, 2014, Watoto fell and was unable to get up.
The next morning, the keepers found her collapsed.
The staff tried in vain to lift her with straps and heavy machinery, but it was too late.
The decision was made to end her life.


Read the complete story/Watch video:
https://idausa.org/campaign/elephants/latest-news/watch-forgotten-elephant-watoto-a-life-behind-bars/

[biophile]

1. 99% of zoos are horrible

But captivity is sometimes now the only way a species will survive. There are just too many humans and we are destroying the planet, including most habitats for other living things.

[red dog 1]

2. I agree.

But "captivity" in zoos need not be torture for the animals.
Keeping an elephant (who are social animals) like poor Watoto "in solitary confinement in a cell barely big enough to turn around in for up to 18 hours a day" is torture!

[biophile]

3. Yes! So few actual humane zoos with natural environments

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. This was a tragedy

And one of the reasons that the Woodland Park Zoo no longer houses elephants.