Sad Story of Billy the Elephant confined in the Los Angeles Zoo

Published 8 months ago

Billy is a 24 year old male Asian elephant caught in the wild and forcibly taken from his native home of Malaysia in 1989. Billy lives on approximately one-quarter acre at L.A. Zoo. In the wild, elephants can walk 30 miles in a day. There are... more

Billy is a 24 year old male Asian elephant caught in the wild and forcibly taken from his native home of Malaysia in 1989. Billy lives on approximately one-quarter acre at L.A. Zoo. In the wild, elephants can walk 30 miles in a day. There are roughly 640 acres in one mile. With no other elephants near him, Billy lives an unnatural, solitary life at the Zoo. While male elephants are often kept separate from other elephants in zoos, in the wild males can display social connections. In India, younger bulls join with older bulls to crop raid. For many years Billy has been displaying stereotypic behavior in the form of repetitive head bobbing that goes on for extended periods of time. Stereotypic behavior is often viewed as an indicator of poor welfare, caused by factors such as restriction of movement, size of enclosure, social isolation, and lack of complexity in the physical environment. Billy has experienced all of these factors. Please visit www.IDAusa.org and www.HelpElephants.com less

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