The only elephant left at the Oakland Zoo will be moving to a sanctuary in Tennessee this fall, and once the male elephant Osh is gone, there won’t be any more elephants at any zoos in the Bay Area.

In September 2023, the Oakland Zoo sent it’s 44-year-old female elephant Donna to a sanctuary in Tennessee, because her years-long companion Lisa had to be euthanized, leaving Donna lonely and depressed. Elephants are very social animals, and need companionship. So you felt bad for the last remaining elephant at the zoo, 30-year-old male Osh, who was not only the last remaining elephant at the Oakland Zoo, but the last remaining elephant at any zoo in the Bay Area.

Now we’re losing Osh too. The Chronicle reports that the Oakland Zoo will be surrendering Osh, its last remaining elephant, later this year.

“Elephants are social herd animals, and despite our best efforts with [the Association of Zoos and Aquariums] over the last year to find him compatible companions to move to Oakland, none were available,” the zoo announced on Facebook Tuesday. “Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided that moving him to the Sanctuary, while difficult and heartbreaking, is the best solution for his overall wellbeing.”

Osh, who weighs 15,000 pounds and is 11 feet tall, will be moved to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. He’ll be transported in what the Oakland Zoo calls a “specially designed, air-conditioned trailer” for the 40-hour ride to Tennessee.

“Although it's difficult to say farewell to Osh, we're filled with joy knowing he's found a new home at The Sanctuary," Oakland Zoo vice president of animal care, conservation and research Colleen Kinzley said in a statement on the zoo’s website. “He will have the opportunity to socialize and develop relationships with many other elephants over his lifetime. Something that we could not offer him here. Those of us who know and love him, including our Oakland Zoo community, will miss him terribly.”

Once Osh is gone, it will be the first time in 75 years that the Oakland Zoo will be without an elephant. The zoo has said Osh will be moving “this fall,” so the remaining summer months will be your last opportunity to see the big fella.

Related: One of the Bay Area's Last Remaining Zoo Elephants Is Being Moved Out of State Where She'll Have More Friends [SFist]

Image: Oakland Zoo via Facebook

After the death of her longtime friend and companion at the Oakland Zoo, 44-year-old elephant Donna is getting relocated to a new home — an elephant sanctuary where she won't be as lonely.

The zoo made the announcement on Facebook, saying that they have spent the last year — since knowing that the euthanizing of their 46-year-old elephant Lisa, Donna's constant companion since 1989, was likely imminent — trying to find a compatible female elephant elsewhere in the country to bring to Oakland to keep Donna company. But no such elephants were found.

"In our unwavering commitment to act in the best interest of our animals, we have decided that best solution in uniting Donna with other compatible female African elephants is to move her to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, an AZA-accredited natural-habitat refuge, in Tennessee," the zoo says. "This move will allow Donna to join a larger group of three female African elephants there, Flora, Tange, and Sukari, all of similar age and social experience to Donna."

Donna's new home will also be a significant upgrade in terms of space. The Elephant Sanctuary has 3,000 acres on which the animals roam, 85 miles southwest of Nashville — while the Oakland Zoo's elephant exhibit is just 6.5 acres.

Lisa had been suffering from numerous health problems in the last couple of years, and had lost significant mobility. Still, Donna stayed with her at all times, even while sleeping — though Lisa had taken to sleeping while standing up, because she could no longer physically lie down.

As the Chronicle reported last month, the difficult decision was made to finally euthanize her, and Donna was also with her at her final moments. "When she collapsed to the ground, her final breaths leaving her body, Donna walked out to comfort her," the Chronicle reported, via her keepers. "Donna stayed for hours beside Lisa’s lifeless body, just touching her and comprehending that her partner was gone."

Since then, the elephant keepers say they "have been giving Donna lots of care and extra attention and have been working very hard to find the best solution for her, based on her particular social needs and lifelong well-being."

Female elephants tend to form strong social bonds with each other, experts say, particularly in the wild, in herds, though sometimes in captivity. Lisa arrived at the Oakland Zoo as a two-year-old elephant in 1979, and Donna joined her ten years later. The pair immediately bonded, zookepers said, even though that is somewhat unusual.

"They’re both elephants that were brought in from the wild," said Colleen Kinzley, zoo’s vice president of animal care, speaking to the Chronicle. “It makes it very difficult for elephants to develop a relationship with a complete stranger. But that’s what they did. I think that’s one of the things I was always very grateful for, that Lisa was like that."

Now, the elephant keepers say that amid mourning the loss of Lisa, they will now have to morn the loss of Donna, even though moving her will be best.

"Losing Donna as well, even though she’s going on to a happy future, is still going to be a loss for us and the community," says the zoo's lead elephant keeper, Gina Kinzley, speaking to the Chronicle.

No other zoo in the Bay Area has elephants anymore, as activism and broader zookeeping norms have convinced everyone that elephants shouldn't be kept in captivity. The San Francisco Zoo, for instance, made the decision in 2005 not to continue housing elephants after the last of its elephants passed away.

The only remaining elephant, then, in the local area, will be the Oakland Zoo's sole male elephant Osh. Male elephants are okay being loners, experts say, and don't have the same social stimulation needs as females.

The Oakland Zoo previously lost the eldest of its female elephants, 50-year-old M'Dundamella, in December 2019.

Photo: Facebook

M'Dundamella, the eldest of the elephants at the Oakland Zoo and a resident there since 1993, collapsed inside her 6.5-acre habitat and was pronounced dead Tuesday afternoon of unknown causes. She had just turned 50 years old in September.

The zoo reported the news on Facebook, saying that M’Dunda was the third oldest African elephant in captivity in an Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited facility. Her collapse happened around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, and when zoo veterinarians reached her, she was already deceased.

"M’Dunda has been part of our Oakland Zoo family for 26 years. She was such a gentle being, and closely bonded with her keepers. We’ll miss her greatly," says said Dr. Joel Parrott, president and CEO of the zoo, in a statement.

M'Dunda was born in Zimbabwe, as the zoo notes on its website, "in (or around) 1969." Her first home in this country was the San Diego Zoo. She was known to occasionally spar and sometimes nuzzle and "trunk twirl" with a 25-year-old male named Osh, who came to the zoo as a 10-year-old adolescent in 2004.

As SFGate notes, M'Dunda had far outlived most of her peers in captivity, with the average lifespan of elephants in captivity being only 17 years — compared to 56 years in the wild.

At her 50th birthday celebration three months ago, the zoo gave her some of her favorite foods, which included a "cake" made out of watermelon.

Her cause of death, while unknown, will be investigated in a necropsy at UC Davis.

Top photo by Steve Goodall

Northern California has snowy mountains, scenic beaches and rolling hills, but have you ever just felt like ... something was missing? Something, perhaps, like a herd of elephants? Don't worry, you're not alone in that feeling, and thankfully someone has finally decided to quit screwing around and do something about it.

The Wall Street Journal reports that an elephant preserve is in the works for Tehama County. Funded through a foundation by Silicon Valley private-equity person Roger McNamee and overseen by the Oakland Zoo staff, the preserve would provide 4,900-acres for a small herd of elephants to grow to more than a dozen over the next two decades.

The project highlights an obesity epidemic that has three out of four zoo elephants overweight, a pretty obvious side effect of being cooped up in a zoo as opposed to roaming freely across an elephant's natural habitat. The preserve will serve as an elephant-fitness experiment for researchers, who will also study elephant behavior in a "near-wild" herd. Once up and running, school groups will be able to visit the preserve and see rare African elephants roaming a tract of grassy hills and oak trees that's actually quite similar to some of their African stomping grounds.

It's about a three-hour drive north of the city, but once up and running we'll be first in line to see these majestic, slightly overweight animals roaming wild and free.

[WSJ]

As SF Appeal is reporting, the San Francisco Zoo has no plans to build (and cannot afford to build) any new sanctuary that would humanely house elephants, following on a 2005 decision by the city not to house elephants there after all the zoo's elephants croaked. This revelation comes on the heels of reports of a certain Rec and Park commissioner who wishes they'd get some elephants again because his grandchildren like them.

Anyhow, Chris Daly has used this opportunity to mention that this issue may come up again under a Bevan Dufty mayorship, because he plans to let the zoo remain a zoo, while Daly would transform it into an animal sanctuary.