Since 2016, a total of 11 elephants have died or been euthanised at Zurich Zoo in Switzerland, eight of whom were young individuals or calves. On 2nd June 2024, a calf was euthanised shortly after birth at the attraction, after she was unable to put weight on her hind legs.
The high mortality rate at Zurich Zoo has raised severe concerns among animal protection campaigners and conservation experts. In 2020, one elephant calf was killed by her herd shortly after birth. In 2022, three young elephants, aged two, five, and eight years old, died from a viral infection. A six-month-old calf died following an accident, while two other calves born in 2020 and 2023 failed to survive due to physical malformations or lack of vitality.
Keith Lindsay, conservation biologist and consultant for Fondation Franz Weber, said, “Due to the controlled environment in zoos, the risk of death in captivity should be significantly lower than in the wild, where birth defects are rare. Instead, deaths among young elephants in Zurich seem to be increasingly becoming the rule.”
The captive conditions and breeding initiatives at Zurich Zoo have faced sharp criticism from animal rights advocates, who argue that keeping megafauna (especially large, social Nonhuman Animals) in artificial enclosures is inherently harmful. Animal welfare campaigners are calling for an immediate end to the elephant breeding programme and urging that the remaining captive elephants be relocated to a protected sanctuary environment where they can live under semi-wild conditions. Animal rights campaigners and vegans are calling for the phasing out of all zoos keeping any kind of Nonhuman Animal.
Monica Biondo, Head of Research and Conservation at Fondation Franz Weber, said, “Elephants don’t belong in zoos. It is impossible to provide them with a species-appropriate living environment… No elephant born in a zoo has ever been released into the wild, nor would it be possible… The breeding program is not a conservation strategy, but justifies keeping animals in the zoo. Young animals attract more visitors because of the ‘yo-yo’ effect.”
