SEATTLE — A 4-year-old elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo, where Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo moved its two female elephants this spring, died Thursday.
Zoo officials say they will perform a necropsy to determine what killed Malee, the first elephant born at the zoo. Staff had treated her for a herpes infection particularly deadly to young elephants.
A 6-year-old elephant called Hansa died at the Seattle zoo in 2007 from a related herpes infection. Animal-welfare activists who opposed the transfer of Seattle’s two adult females — Chai and Bamboo — to Oklahoma warned they might pass the virus to Malee and her 9-month-old sister, Achara.
But zoo officials dismissed the risk, noting that most elephants carry one or more types of herpes virus.
Malee and Achara’s mother, Asha, and their aunt, Chandra, were both exposed to the herpes virus at the Missouri zoo, where they were born. A statement from the Oklahoma City Zoo’s veterinarian said the virus has been intermittently detected in both Asha and Chandra in routine testing.
On its website, the Oklahoma City Zoo said keepers noticed Malee moving more slowly than normal Wednesday. They later noticed a discoloration in her mouth, and started treatment for elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus, or EEHV. A second treatment was administered around 1 a.m. Thursday, but the elephant declined rapidly and died about three hours later.
EEHV is known to kill rapidly by causing massive internal hemorrhaging.
Regardless of the cause, Malee’s death is sure to fuel the debate over captive breeding of elephants. A 2012 Seattle Times investigation found that infant mortality among zoo elephants is 40 percent, nearly three times the rate in wild-elephant populations.
The investigation also found that for every elephant born in a zoo, an average of two elephants die.
Alyne Fortgang, co-founder of the Seattle-based Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, called for an immediate halt to breeding at the Oklahoma City Zoo, which has plans to continue increasing its herd.
“All breeding must stop at zoos that have had elephants who have had or have been exposed to EEHV,” Fortgang wrote in an email. “Anything less is unethical.”
A spokeswoman for Woodland Park Zoo said it’s too early to comment on Malee’s death. “Our hearts and thoughts go out to our family at Oklahoma City Zoo and their herd,” Gigi Allianic wrote in an email. “We are confident that Chai and Bamboo continue to do well with their new herd.”
The statement from the Oklahoma City Zoo said none of the other elephants there appears to be ill.
