Zurich Zoo euthanises fifth baby elephant since 2020

It is already the fifth elephant calf since 2020 that has not survived at Zurich Zoo.

Among them are animals that died shortly after birth due to malformations, one that was presumably trampled to death within the herd, and the young animal Zali, which died in September 2025 from a twisted bowel following a leg injury sustained while playing. In addition, three further elephants succumbed to the Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus (EEHV) in 2022.

Zoo director Severin Dressen concedes that the situation is «frustrating», but sees no causal link between the deaths. The cases are isolated incidents with no discernible pattern, he says.

Animal welfare organisation demands consequences

The Fondation Franz Weber does not describe the repeated deaths as regrettable isolated incidents, but as evidence that keeping elephants in zoos fundamentally fails to meet their needs. The organisation demands that Zurich Zoo immediately withdraw from the European breeding programme, that transfers between zoos be ended, and that the elephant enclosure be closed in the long term.

Commentary by the IG Wild beim Wild editorial team

The series of deaths at Zurich Zoo raises fundamental questions about keeping wild animals in captivity. Elephants are highly intelligent social beings that cover dozens of kilometres a day in the wild and live in complex family groups. A zoo enclosure, however generously it may be designed, cannot structurally meet these spatial and social needs. The fact that zoo director Dressen describes the failure of the breeding programme as «part of nature» while at the same time declaring the form of husbandry beyond reproach is telling: the question is not whether elephants should be kept in captivity at all, but only how the existing system can be optimised.

The Fondation Franz Weber draws the right conclusion. Anyone who takes animal welfare seriously must ask whether it is ethically justifiable to keep wild animals in zoos at all. And for Zurich Zoo, which likes to present itself as a flagship establishment, this question is more than justified after the fifth elephant death in six years.

Further articles

• Zoos harm animals more than you may realise
• Justice for zoo animals
• Is it time to ban zoos?
• Finland: Zoo wants to send giant pandas back to China over maintenance costs
• The keeping of elephants in zoos must finally be stopped!
• Killing of surplus animals – zoos fail at species conservation