Leaping Into The Dung-Pile

Managers at Oregon Zoo apparently have little historical knowledge, and thus repeat mistakes made by other zoos.  OZ announced that the elephant cow, Rose-Tu, is with calf, and splashed it across the media today.  Apparently, they've forgotten all about what has happened in the past:  the director of Burnett Park Zoo in Syracuse, New York, lost his job due to a similar move - they plastered the area with billboards, set up a webcam, all in anticipation of the blessed event.  One little problem:  the cow and calf died.

As a direct result of drumming up business in anticipation of the impending birth, the resulting outcry brought about the removal of that director and others.  OZ has a similar situation unfolding at present.

For one thing, the cow has been pregnant for only a few months - since last December.  As the gestation period for elephants is in the range of 630-660 days, there's a lot of time for things to go wrong.  For another:  Oregon Zoo has three cow elephants, two of which are sufficiently handleable that they can be taken on morning walks outside the elephant facility.  Guess which one they don't take on walks.

The zoo has a combination of a cow they can't trust, and staff that have, for the most part, little to no experience in dealing with newborn elephants and the rapidly shifting dynamics that such an event involves.  While Oregon Zoo - otherwise known as Portland Zoological Gardens, Washington Park Zoo, and Metro Washington Park Zoo - has had a long history of success in elephant reproduction, no elephants have been born there in over thirteen years, and the staff that oversaw the successes there have scattered. 

Oregon Zoo presently has in place a small subset of animals and a greatly expanded staff.  While the new staff may be talented in day-to-day management of a small number of animals, it seems clear that by trumpeting a pregnancy so early in the game, they've set themselves up for a barrage of criticism in the event that problems arise.  More to the point, Deputy Director Mike Keele - with a whopping total of seven or eight years of actual animal experience under his belt (he's been working at the zoo for thirty years) has taken a decidedly bad turn in response to the pregnancy, noting that the zoo will be monitoring events very closely.

That, and the public buildup, is precisely what screwed things up at Burnett Park. 

Buy a clue.

Birth and death are normal parts of life.  Elephants can understand that.  When you start making a big deal out of things, that's when the bad stuff happens.  Elephants can (and will) stop labor - even if it results in a dead calf - if they perceive that life isn't normal.

Actual zoo professionals would never choose hoopla over animal welfare.

Your zoo is a service of METRO.

Comments

[Aaron B. Hockley]

Interesting. I only caught a bit of a sound bite about the elephant baby and mentioned it to my wife. She asked when the baby was due, and I said I didn't know. My wife (a board certified vet tech) then made the comment that the baby must be due soon or there's no way they'd be announcing it.

Or... as you've noted... they're just not very smart.

[Max]

It appears that your wife has common sense - something that appears lacking among managers at Oregon Zoo.