At the Barcelona Zoo, a 40-year-old African elephant places her foot through the metal barrier where a zookeeper gently scrubs its sole - the beloved pachyderm gets her “pedicure”, along with apple slices every day.
The treatment is part of the zoo’s specialised geriatric care for aging animals that cannot be reintroduced into the wild as zoos world over increasingly emphasise lifelong care.
“Sending them back into nature would be an error,” said Pilar Padilla, head of the zoo’s mammal care. “It is very likely they wouldn’t survive.”
Zoos have undergone a rethink in recent decades with the emphasis on the conservation of species and education, moving away from the past paradigm that often displayed exotic animals as a spectacle. The new approach includes knowing how to adapt to the needs of aging animals, which has led zoos to create bigger, more nature-like enclosures, such as the Sahel-Savannah area at the zoo in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
Along with breeding programs to reintroduce fit animals into nature, zoos today want to ensure that animals living longer due to advancements in veterinary care can age gracefully, said Martín Zordan, the CEO of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, or WAZA.
“Specialised geriatric care is becoming increasingly essential,” Zordan told The Associated Press at the organisation’s Barcelona offices. Zordan said that just like older people, elderly animals require more care: regular health checks, arthritis treatment, softer foods or nutritional supplements, adapted living spaces and monitoring of mental and behavioral health.
Along with caring for a pair of aging elephants, the Barcelona Zoo is also the home for a 15-year-old wolf, a leopard and a tiger who are both 17, as well as some older birds - including a flock of senior flamencos. It’s not alone - several zoos in the United States, for example, highlight their treatment of older animals, such as the zoos in Baltimore and Baton Rouge.
Zookeepers at the Barcelona Zoo, not far from the city’s Mediterranean coastline, are closely monitoring its two aging female pachyderms, Susi and Bully (pronounced BUH’-yi), as they cope with the recent death of Yoyo, their former pen-mate and long-time companion.
