They died of old age and starvation yeah, by official accounts it was old age. I think they gave the lions the elephant meat back then. Yeah, all in all is kinda sad. The elephant habitat was perhaps half hectare (counting the feeding and refugee/vet area) and I might be overestimating it a lot. It was a single elephant but still... I consider a minimum for the elephant to be the size of at least half the whole thing. The zebra population is down from a couple of dozens to one, the metalbawskes, ah hem, I mean the only rhino is clearly too old as the single buffalo and both are about to meet the Emperor in the ethereal.
It was really depressing from a point of view but from the wonderful optics of a little guy it was all wonderful and marvelous. He was disappointed of the no elephant or giraffe deal, oh and that there were chimps instead of gorillas but all in all he had a great time.
I oppose to zoos because in our current times there's enough info about animals on the internet, and while the close up experience can't really be replaced, it can be humanized a lot better (I speak for older zoos in general and this zoo in currently in particular). This means zoos should be refugees of animals that can't live in the wild anymore (like rescued from dickheads who think is cool to have endangered species as pets) and they should be provided with ample, ample spaces and the most natural experience possible.
I agree with this, I think zoos should be prioritized as follows (Priorities in the same rank are applied equal weight)
Primary Objectives:
Conservation of species who can no longer live in the wild
Ensure that the provided habitats have ample survival needs, space and enrichment
Ensure proper veterinary care
Secondary Objective
Give information about the animals and habitats to those visiting the area
Tertiary Objective
Human Entertainment, to keep them engaged and hopefully prime them for Secondary Objective,
twinletwhich would in turn hopefully eventually get them into conservation work
((I feel like maybe the primaries should maybe be weighted differently rather than equal but am not sure which weighting of them would provide the most benefit to the non humans long term, not that I’m against humans, but we are of Least Concern))