Elephant Bios

Maybelle (b. ~1960, d. 4/22/04) died 44 years of age

Born in Tanzania in approximately 1960, Maybelle was captured from her family and the wild when she was roughly a 1-to-2 year-old baby. She was taken from her warm climate native homeland and brought to the San Francisco Zoo on May 22, 1962. Maybelle died on April 22, 2004 at only 44 years of age. In the wild Maybelle would have been in her prime as the average life span of elephants in the wild is 60 to 70 years. In fact, elephants in the wild breed into their 50's.

The San Francisco Zoological Society (SFZS) told the media that Maybelle died from "heart failure." In reality, Maybelle fell down and was unable to get up. She was found by Zoo staff at 7 a.m., lying in a sternal position, legs splayed. Since the Zoo does not have 24-hour monitoring of the elephants, no one knows how long Maybelle was in this position, struggling to get up. Three hours after she was found, Maybelle died. Trauma to her cardiovascular system, which was essentially crushed as Maybelle lay there, full weight on her chest, was the probable cause.

In the wild, elephants travel up to 50+ miles per day, exercise that is necessary for good health. As the largest land mammal in the world, elephants need constant movement in order to develop healthy joints, muscles (heart, etc.) and lungs. The constant movement and stimulation of the natural environment and interaction with numerous family members are also essential to good mental health.

At the SF Zoo, Maybelle was denied all that is normal to elephants. She was prematurely taken from her mother with whom she would have remained her entire life and was torn from a tightly knit community of aunties and friends only to spend her life in a barren Zoo lot of less than 1/2 an acre.

Elephants normally eat soil in order to maintain health and get iron. At the SF Zoo, lack of access to soil caused Maybelle and the other elephants to become anemic. In addition, she suffered from colic (inflammation of her digestive track) from ingesting sand that comprised the unnatural surfaces on which she was forced to live.

Despite years of anemia and colic problems with the elephants, the Zoo never addressed nor corrected the problem of the sand-based enclosures that created health problems for the elephants.