For the new study, the researchers drew on data from European “elephant studbooks” and the European Elephant Group, which track the animals’ life histories and transfers in captivity. Clubb and colleagues compared the median life spans of 800 elephants in European zoos with those of wild elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park and tamed elephants in Burma’s Myanma Tiber Enterprise (MTE), a logging business. “We chose populations that are highly protected, as are zoo elephants,” says Clubb. The team’s analysis revealed that African zoo elephants had life spans of about 17 years, whereas those in Amboseli lived 56 years. The median life span for Asian zoo elephants was nearly 19 years, but at MTE it was almost 42 years. Death rates for infant Asian elephants were especially high in zoos.
