For many years, zoos and circuses relied primarily on importation from the wild to sustain their captive population. In recent years, public opinion and the protection of Asian and African elephants under CITES Appendix I and II has made it difficult for zoos and circuses to import elephants from the wild.* As a result they now rely almost entirely on captive breeding.

At this stage, captive populations are in decline; far from being able to produce individuals to reintroduce to the wild, zoos are not able to maintain their own populations. If elephants are allowed adequate space and better conditions overall, we believe that captive breeding programs will be more successful. So in a sense, zoo professionals who are fighting against the movement toward sanctuary-sized elephant exhibits are shooting themselves in the foot – if, that is, hedging against extinction is a genuine reason for keeping elephants in zoos.

But, let’s say that zoos were able to breed elephants successfully in captivity. Do a few individuals in captivity really mean that we have succeeded in preventing extinction? Would it be acceptable to have a population of elephants outside their native habitat? Do we want elephants roaming about continental United States or Europe? And would it ever be possible to reintroduce elephants back to the wild on a scale large enough to save the species?

One thing is sure: If zoos are genuine when making this argument for keeping captive elephants, they ought to join forces to fully protect a few habitats in Africa and in Asia to ensure that they have a place into which to reintroduce their elephants. That would help to hedge against extinction in a more authentic way. At the moment it is hard to take this argument seriously.

All this said, however, it could be argued that it is not viable to introduce captive-bred elephants to the wild in any case. In captivity, they are denied the opportunity to learn survival skills. Would they know how to migrate, where to find food, how to avoid danger? Would they endanger communities by looking to people for food handouts since elephants in captivity recognize people as providing them with sustenance?

Another issue is disease. Would elephants spread diseases acquired in captivity to wild populations? A growing number of elephants have died of herpes, a virus harmless in African elephants, but potentially lethal to Asians. Captive elephants are also dying of tuberculosis and, more recently to drug resistant staff infections. Most likely elephants have been infected by their keepers, but they have also passed diseases on to other elephants and people. What if we were to introduce these into dwindling wild populations?

*CITES has a rule that states that the international trade in species on the Appendices are restricted for “primarily commercial purposes.” Zoos argue that they are educational and conservation bodies and not primarily commercial, but since the vast majority of zoos are for profit, for many people this is an unsatisfactory argument.