Happy, a Bronx Zoo elephant who gave researchers new insight into the animal’s behavior and became the crux of a closely watched animal rights case, has been euthanized at age 55, the zoo said Wednesday.
The Asian elephant was put to sleep Tuesday at the zoo where she lived for almost a half-century.
Zoo officials said some age-related conditions accelerated in recent weeks, and she showed signs of a falloff in kidney or liver function.
Happy the elephant walks through the Asia Habitat enclosure at the Bronx Zoo on Oct. 2, 2018. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
A necropsy revealed arthritis and large, inoperable uterine tumors that are impossible to diagnose in elephants through exams or imaging, the zoo said.
“She was a wonderful elephant,” interim zoo director Craig Piper said in an interview Wednesday, as heavy-hearted staffers absorbed the loss of an animal some had tended for over 30 years. “She served as a tremendous ambassador for elephants and for elephant conservation.”
Since Happy’s death, the zoo’s 57-year-old Patty is the last elephant on exhibit in the United States’ largest city.
The zoo’s parent institution, the Wildlife Conservation Society, decided 20 years ago to stop acquiring pachyderms.
Born in the wild in Asia, Happy was brought to the US as a 1-year-old.
She was named for a character from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” before arriving at the zoo in 1977.
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Security camera captured Happy the Elephant roaming around at the Bronx Zoo in an undated photo. REUTERS
Happy keenly engaged with her keepers and was easy to motivate with favorite treats, such as watermelon or strawberries, said Keith Lovett, the zoo’s director of animal programs. Piper said she sometimes stashed treats in her ear to save for later.
In 2005, she showed researchers that elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror — a sign of self-awareness seen in only a few other species.
During the experiment, Happy faced her reflection and repeatedly used her trunk to touch an “X” painted above her eye, a mark she could see only in the mirror.
She was paired with other elephants until her last partner died in 2006.
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Happy then lived separately from Patty and a third elephant out of concern that they wouldn’t get along, though Lovett said the animals could see, smell and touch each other over a divider.
The third elephant, called Maxine, died in 2018.
Zoo officials said the median life expectancy for Asian elephants in US zoos is about 45 years. Their life expectancy in the wild is more difficult to pinpoint.
During Happy’s lifetime, zoo elephant exhibits came under increased scrutiny. Some experts said urban animal parks were too small for creatures that roam extensive distances in the wild.