1 of L.A. Zoo’s 4 Elephants Dies

Tara, a moody and doe-eyed African elephant that had delighted crowds at the Los Angeles Zoo since 1966, died Tuesday morning in her pen of unknown causes, officials said. She was 44.

A solitary pachyderm who would act aggressively toward some females and make friends with others, Tara was discovered sprawled on her side by two animal keepers. She died half an hour later, zoo officials said.

“She had eaten during the night and there were no physical signs in her barn or yard that she was stressed or struggled,” said head elephant keeper Joe Briscoe. “[Monday] she ate well and went about her daily routine normally. So right now, I just don’t know what happened.”

Tara will be examined by veterinarians to determine the cause of death, said zoo director John Lewis.

African elephants in the wild live to around age 40 and, therefore, Tara could have been considered “senior-aged,” he said. “She lived a pretty full life. Everybody’s sad about this.”

Tara was born in Kenya in 1960 and captured at age 2, according to the North American Region Studbook for the African Elephant, a catalog of captive elephants. She was exhibited at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla., before being sent to the Los Angeles Zoo.

“Tara had a very tough life,” said Gretchen Wyler of the Humane Society of the U.S., a group that has filed suit against the zoo to protest the relocation of another of the zoo’s four elephants.

“She was taken from her mother at the age of 2. Can you imagine what that must have been like?” Wyler said. Tara’s medical records suggested she may have suffered from arthritis, Wyler said. “She couldn’t move her knees. She’d just shuffle around.”

Tara recently had been housed outside public view on the zoo grounds. Her neighbor was Ruby, another African elephant. The two had grown friendly and were frequently heard making noises together or seen touching trunks.

Ruby, 44, had just returned to the Los Angeles Zoo after an 18-month stay at the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee. She had been sent there for an elephant propagation project over the protests of animal rights advocates. Wyler and others had argued in court papers that Ruby should not be separated from Gita, a 46-year-old Asian elephant also kept at the Los Angeles Zoo, and, critics claimed, Ruby’s best friend.

Ruby failed to assimilate with the other animals in Tennessee and was returned. Critics said it was because she missed Gita.

Zoo officials said Tuesday that because Ruby had to be quarantined for 30 days after her return, she wasn’t penned with Gita. It was OK that she was close enough to Tara to touch trunks because they were the same species, officials said. Gita has been housed with Billy, a 19-year-old Asian elephant.

Zoo spokeswoman Lora LaMarca said that while Ruby’s quarantine ended Tuesday, officials had yet to decide on her zoo living arrangement.

Wyler said that Tara’s death was a sad thing, but she hoped something good would come of it.

“I hope that now the zoo will put Ruby and Gita back together,” she said.