22-Year-Old Animal Park Elephant Dies

A 22-year-old female African elephant died Thursday at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, a day after it first started showing signs of abdominal distress and just minutes before veterinarians were to begin a third and more extensive round of treatment, officials said.

The 4-ton elephant, Shapi, had lived at the animal park for 20 years and had given birth to one calf, Tavi, in 1982. It was one of eight females and one bull in the park’s African elephant collection and was considered one of the more rambunctious females.

Elephants normally live into their 50s or 60s, said Jeff Jouett, spokesman for the San Diego Zoological Society, which operates the animal park east of Escondido.

Shapi began exhibiting signs of a stomach ache Wednesday morning, Jouett said, by alternately acting lethargic and aggressive toward other elephants and keepers, and standing in a posture that indicated abdominal pain.

Then Wednesday, keepers first noticed sand in the animal’s stools, indicating she was eating dirt to soothe the stomach, as is customary among elephants. Shapi also began regurgitating clear fluids.

By noon Wednesday, Shapi was given a gut analgesic to help relieve pain. Drawn blood showed no signs of abnormalities, Jouett said. Later in the day, Shapi was given a gut relaxer, then kept overnight in a barn, under watch by her keepers.

Thursday morning, the Wild Animal Park’s veterinarians planned to knock out the animal with a tranquilizer so she could be treated for colic by being given an enema and mineral oil to loosen any abdominal impaction or blockage, Jouett said.

Coincidentally, a veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture was at the park for a routine facilities inspection and was invited to join the other vets.

As preparations were under way, Shapi collapsed at 9:40 a.m. and died.

Later Thursday, the elephant was transported to the pathology laboratory at the San Diego Zoo for a necropsy. The veterinarians at first suspected that the animal was suffering from a twisted intestine.