Death of second elephant at Dublin Zoo ‘devastating’

A former operations manager at Dublin Zoo has said the death of a second Asian elephant at the Zoo is “devastating”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Gerry Creighton, who is also the founder of Global Elephant Care, said the virus that the elephants succumb to is common.

“It happens in the wild. It happens in elephants in human care. It’s particularly aggressive virus, it’s the herpes family believe it or not.”

Yesterday, Dublin Zoo announced the death of seven-year-old elephant Zinda, who died due to Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV).

It follows the recent death of another elephant, Avani, on 1 July to the same virus.

Mr Creighton said to lose the two elephants is “a devastating blow” to the team.

He added that the effort “was beyond what you could have ever expected, but it’s such an uncompromising virus and it manifests so quickly and the elephants can deteriorate at such a quick rate, it’s quite devastating”.

Mr Creighton said vaccine trials are taking place in Houston Zoo and Chester Zoo.

“Hopefully that will bring some alleviation to this situation, but it’s happened across the USA.

“And it’s just particularly bad because the Dublin Zoo has had an incredibly successful Asian endangered species breeding program for the elephants.

“And we had nine calves born over a decade, all born within the herd. Born under normal family situations, no stress. A beautiful family had developed from it, so much so that some of the family have gone to Cincinnati to start off a family breeding situation there.

“The Dublin programme has resonated throughout the world and we were very, very lucky up to this point.”

Mr Creighton said he was present at the births of both elephants that died recently and it is also a “devastating loss for the herd”.