Johannesburg Zoo, where Lammie has lived for the entire 39 years of her life, believes it can help Lammie by getting another captive elephant to be her friend. Yet animal welfare advocates believe this could do more harm than good — for both Lammie and the newcomer.
While Lammie has only known life at Johannesburg Zoo, her parents, Jumbo and Dolly, lived in the wild until they were captured and brought to the zoo in the 1970s. They had four babies together, including Lammie and her two younger brothers, Umfaan and Johnti, as well as a stillborn calf.
In 1990, Umfaan was sold to a facility in Johannesburg when he was 6 years old — it’s not clear if he’s still alive. Johnti was sold that same year to Peaugres Zoo in France. He was only 18 months old at the time, and he died 16 years after his arrival at the zoo from an unknown cause.
A decade later, Jumbo and Dolly died, too. In 1999, Jumbo passed away from an “infection” and “enteritis,” and Dolly was euthanized the following year after Lammie accidentally fell on her during a medical procedure, causing Dolly to dislocate her knee, Humane Society International (HSI).
“Elephants are social and sentient beings, and studies have demonstrated that wild elephants demonstrate behaviors associated with grief, self-awareness and compassion,” Delsink told The Dodo. “Thus, it is not unreasonable to state that Lammie has likely suffered significant grief.”
“It has been well documented in the wild that elephants grieve when one of their family members dies,” Delsink added. “It is also known from zoos, that if an elephant loses its partner, it can grieve to the point of dying in some cases.”
“The sand constipation might be an indication that Kinkel tried to relieve the pain by ingesting sand if no branches or other roughage was available, or alternatively he was trying to obtain vital minerals which were missing from the food,” Delsink said.
Since Kinkel’s death, Lammie has lived alone in her enclosure, which doesn’t offer her many things to do — and is even downright dangerous for the captive elephant.
The zoo has revealed that it would like to get a new companion for Lammie — yet Delsink and other animal welfare advocates don’t think this is a wise idea. For one, there’s no telling if Lammie and the elephant will get along, especially if the new elephant turns out to be dominant and bullies Lammie. Secondly, bringing a second elephant to the zoo would mean separating that elephant from his or her family.