Elephants at Shanghai Wild Animal Park: Born Free reaction

African elephants in captivity (c) smarcjanski

The seemingly aggressive behaviour of these elephants, particularly displayed by certain individuals towards other individual members of the group, is very distressing to see, and reflects the poor physical and social conditions in which these elephants are being held. 

Since 2012, more than 100 young African elephants, mostly calves aged between 2-7 years, have been taken from the wild in Zimbabwe and exported to China for use in zoos and other entertainment venues. Capturing these calves involves the scattering of herds typically using helicopters, the tranquilisation of the young elephants, and their removal to holding facilities.  

These processes, along with the eventual long-distance transport to China, and the entirely inappropriate conditions at the venues for which they are destined, results in extreme physical and psychological trauma for the animals concerned, as well as for their family groups from which they have been removed. Some of the captured animals did not survive the process. Those that did are destined to endure appalling living conditions in inappropriate and unstable social groupings, as well as being on constant public display.  

It’s therefore hardly surprising that the animals develop abnormal behaviours, which can include aggression towards other elephants at the facility.  

International wildlife trade regulations stipulate that live elephants from Zimbabwe and other southern African countries should only be exported to ‘appropriate and acceptable destinations’. However, the designation of Chinese captive facilities as ‘appropriate and acceptable’ for wild-caught African elephants by the Zimbabwean and Chinese authorities has been extremely controversial.

Born Free, along with many animal welfare organisations and experts, tried to prevent the export of young wild elephants from Zimbabwe to foreign zoos, including to China, but sadly this went ahead despite international condemnation. 

In 2022, Parties to CITES, the international wildlife trade regulator, agreed that any export of live wild-caught African elephants will be limited to in situ conservation programmes or secure areas in the wild, within the species’ natural and historical range in Africa, while African elephant range States tried to find agreement on the conditions in which live African elephants might be traded. The outcomes of the discussions that have ensued will be considered at the upcoming CITES meeting in Uzbekistan in November 2025. Born Free and others will be doing all we can to permanently shut down this heinous trade and prevent further suffering. 

Sadly, this doesn’t help those wild-caught elephants that have already been exported to zoos in China and elsewhere.

We are therefore in discussions with our colleagues at the Pro Elephant Network (PREN) and with groups in China to establish how best to proceed, in order to convince the zoo and national authorities within China to work with international elephant experts to prioritise the welfare of the captive elephants in the country, and to urgently address the issues that have led to the concerning incidences that have been circulating.