Ellen Kirkpatrick

The death of Malti, a 15-month-old Asian Elephant at the Calgary Zoo, has devastated the facility’s visitors and staff. Malti collapsed on the afternoon of Saturday, November 1, just a day after zoo staff confirmed the baby elephant had contracted the elephant herpes virus. Zoo officials believe that the virus had travelled to Malti’s heart and attacked vital tissue.

The zoo has been faced with a number of tragedies over the last couple of years. Malti’s death occurred approximately six months after the mysterious fatalities of 41 out of 43 cownosed stingrays. About a year ago, a hippopotamus being transferred from Denver to Calgary died during the 29-hour transit. In 2006, a newborn gorilla died after being taken away from it’s mother by another female who had no milk to nurse the infant. Two gorillas died of unrelated diseases, and one died after suffering a seizure.

Blood tests revealed that Malti had contracted elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), a deadly disease that was discovered for the first time in 1995. The illness attacks the circulatory system of the elephant and can lay dormant in the body before any symptoms become apparent. Because this disease is specific to elephants, zoo officials believe that Malti contracted the disease from one of the four adults in the herd. The virus is especially deadly among young or newborn elephants as they lack the antibodies required to stave off the illness. Over 40 cases of EEHV have been reported throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia since 1983.

According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, EEHV has been detected in wild elephants as well as those in captivity. While EEHV has claimed the lives of nearly a dozen young zoo elephants in the last 10 years, veterinarians are working hard to find a vaccine and are hoping that the death of Malti will assist in finding a treatment. The disease is particularly difficult to treat, because it remains undetectable until symptoms become apparent. There have only been four elephants recorded to have survived the disease after receiving care.

This has been the second death among elephants at the zoo in the last five years. Malti’s mother, Maharani, gave birth to her first calf in November of 2004, but the calf died shortly after the mother rejected her.

Laurie Herron, manager of communications at the Calgary Zoo, explains that this tragedy cannot be compared to deaths in past years. “With Malti, this is a tragic virus that could not really be determined ahead of time,” says Herron. “They’ve been watching ever since she was tiny for any signs of it.” Herron says that zoo staff were aware of the possible danger, but treatments are limited and constant monitoring revealed no early symptoms.

“You can’t co-relate it to a hippo that died in transit, or a gorilla that was old and died of cancer. We have phenomenal vets and keepers here,” says Herron. “Animals get sick. Old or young, they have illnesses.”

Because of this latest development, there have been calls from animal activists to shut down the zoo’s elephant breeding program. Only two out of four elephant births at the zoo have seen the animals live to adulthood. These births include Maharani, who was born in 1990, and a male elephant, Calvin, who was born in 1986 and transferred to the Leipzig Zoo in Germany. Malti’s birth had been a huge triumph after years of waiting for another successful elephant birth, and because she had been thriving up until she contracted EEHV, her death was sudden and unexpected. “She was a beautiful, healthy little elephant,” says Herron.

She says the future of the elephant breeding program is unclear at this point. This program is a main component of The Species Survival Plan, which is administered by The American Zoo and Aquarium Association. The plan was developed to ensure the survival of endangered animals that have little chance of surviving without being bred in captivity. Scientists, biologists and veterinarians involved in the Species Survival Plan make recommendations in regards to the elephant breeding process. “They know the risks, and they weigh those risks and the benefits,” says Herron. “Spike [Malti’s father] and Maharani have valuable genetics in the captive gene pool.”

Herron says that while the zoo has suffered some tragic losses, there have also been many successes. “We have just had a successful giraffe birth, and a baby gorilla,” she says. The Calgary Zoo Conservation Outreach Program recently won two prestigious awards at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. It received the 2008 United Nations Equator Prize for its support and contribution to the Wechiau Hippopotamus Sanctuary in Ghana, Africa. Along with the Equator Prize, the sanctuary won an extra recognition award as one of the top five initiatives in the world. These awards seek to commemorate valuable work in the reduction of poverty through conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

There are an estimated 30,000 Asian elephants remaining in the wild, and they have a normal life expectancy of about 70 years.