Elephant Was 51 Years Old : Lucki, S.D. Zoo’s Oldest Mammal, Dies

Lucki, the venerable Asian elephant that had reigned for years as matriarch of the herd at the San Diego Zoo, was put to sleep Sunday after she was laid low by a degenerative foot ailment. She was 51.

The oldest mammal at the zoo and one of its longtime residents, the 10,000-pound elephant was given tranquilizers and injected with T-61, a euthanasia drug, about 11 a.m. and died a few minutes later, said Jeff Jouett, zoo spokesman.

“It was a subdued day around the zoo,” said Jouett. “People were very glum. A lot of the keepers were distraught. Elephants are intelligent animals with interesting personalities, so it’s easy to get attached to them.”

‘Sense of Loss’

The five other elephants in the zoo herd, all of them females, were allowed to enter the enclosure to view Lucki’s body for about an hour after her death. Jouett said the animals are “able to sense a loss of one of their kind” and the observance gave the herd a chance to go through “the elephant equivalent of the mourning process.”

Zookeepers were concerned in particular about the psychological state of Maya, a 49-year-old Asian elephant who arrived with Lucki from the Calcutta Zoo in 1941 and had been her friend ever since. “Maya seemed curious but not overwhelmed by the situation,” Jouett said.

As Lucki’s condition declined in recent weeks and the elephant began refusing to eat or drink, Maya “seemed to sense” the problems and would bring hay over to her companion, Jouett said.

He said Lucki, for years “the oldest, biggest and toughest” elephant at the San Diego Zoo, had suffered severe foot problems for the past decade, but began to decline noticeably only in recent weeks.

Such foot problems, while seemingly insignificant, are the most serious health threat to elephants in captivity. Elephants in the wild typically walk 20 miles a day, wearing down their foot pads as they go, but those in zoos are unable to get extensive exercise, so the growths on their feet can cause problems, Jouett said.

Although keepers are able to trim the pads, Lucki had not allowed such treatment until recent years, and by then the damage to her feet had been done, he said.

Tooth Pulled in ’81

In addition, Lucki had problems stemming from a tooth that was pulled in 1981, one of the first times such a procedure was performed on an elephant in captivity. Though Lucki regained much of her weight after that operation, thanks to a special diet, she began to lose weight again in recent weeks.

During the past few days, she seemed to take a turn for the worse. Zoo veterinarians, worried by her condition, began twice-daily examinations and did a complete blood workup, but the tests proved normal.

Nonetheless, Lucki grew increasingly unstable on her legs, Jouett said, and seemed particularly bothered by her front feet. At one point during the past week, he said, Lucki was in the elephant pool and had a hard time getting out.

On Sunday morning, her keeper, Guy Lichty, arrived at 6:30 a.m. to find Lucki on the ground, her rear legs splayed out. She was unable to get up.

Her keepers tryed to coax Lucki up, at one point even hooking the 5-ton animal up to a forklift with cables in an attempt to raise her, but it was to no avail, Jouett said. Zoo veterinarians examined her, concluding that Lucki had ruptured the muscles in her back legs while trying to stand at some point during the night, he said.

Decision Made

After a conference among her keepers and zoo veterinarians, it was decided that a lethal injection should be administered to the suffering elephant, Jouett said. Doug Myers, the zoo’s director, took a particular interest in the situation, Jouett said, noting that the administrator has a picture from his youth of himself with Lucki.

Visitors were kept away from Elephant Mesa, the zoo’s enclosure for the massive mammals, until about 2 p.m. By that time, Lucki’s massive carcass had been lifted by crane onto a flatbed truck, covered with a tarp, and driven to the zoo hospital, where Dr. Marilyn Anderson, the facility’s pathologist, was to perform an autopsy, Jouett said.

With Lucki’s death, elephant keepers at the zoo expect Maya to vie with another large female, Liz, for leadership of the herd.

“It could take weeks or even months, but eventually one of them will establish dominance,” Jouett said, explaining how the elephants will bluff and fight as they challenge for the top spot.

While some Asian elephants in captivity have been known to live into their 60s, zoo veterinarians said Lucki was in what are typically considered to be the twilight years for them, Jouett said.

Aside from Maya and Liz, the zoo’s herd includes two other Asian elephants, Devi and Sumithi, as well as an African elephant, Tembeo.