Zoos of the future may have no animals at all
Canada was considering a ban on elephants in captivity, but now that bill is in question
In the Edmonton Valley Zoo, Lucy the elephant, believed to be about 49, spends her days with no other elephants in her enclosure. In a statement on its website, the zoo says she is cared for by "a dedicated team of animal-care professionals who work tirelessly to provide her with excellent care."
Lucy originally came from an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka. When she was sold to the zoo in 1977, she was about two years old — and she has lived alone for much of the last two decades.
The documentary Lucy: The Stolen Lives of Elephants examines what life is like for her and other elephants in captivity. With interviews from animal-welfare experts and zookeepers-turned-advocates, the film considers a future when the practice of keeping elephants in zoos will be phased out.
In the wild, elephants maintain complex social structures and spend much of their time foraging for food and communicating with one another. "Looking for food, interacting, looking for mates, looking for water — they have purpose," says Joyce Poole, co-founder of the advocacy group ElephantVoices.
In captivity, opportunities for those wild behaviours are minimal — the animals are limited to the confines of their enclosure or the zoo grounds, and they often live with unrelated elephants. "In captivity, they've got nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to meet," Poole says.
For its part, the Edmonton Valley Zoo says on its website that Lucy "takes several walks throughout the day to exercise her muscles and stimulate her brain." It adds: "It is important to vary her schedule daily to ensure she is intellectually stimulated and not bored from rigid routines.
Bill S-15, known as the Jane Goodall Act, would have phased out the practice of keeping elephants and great apes in captivity in Canada, with a few exceptions. It passed in the Senate in 2024, but was essentially halted earlier this year when Parliament was prorogued.
A zoo without animals
But what does a zoo without these iconic animals look like? In 2016, the Buenos Aires government decided to close its 140-year-old zoo and either relocate most of its roughly 2,500 animals to sanctuaries or release them into the wild.
The former zoo is now the Buenos Aires Eco-park, an interactive space that raises awareness about natural habitats in Argentina and around the world and the importance of protecting species.
Visitors can "learn about Argentinian biodiversity without showing them the animal," says Tomas Sciolla, a conservationist with Fondation Franz Weber. "Having technology, interactive experiences, educating the people — we're embedded in our objective.
"So we need to start doing things differently, where we keep on rescuing native endangered species, not showing them to people."
The eco-park had two African elephants — Kuky and Pupy. For the last several years, the zoo has been preparing to send them to the Global Sanctuary for Elephants in Brazil. Sadly, Kuky died in 2024, but Pupy is currently in the process of being transferred to her new home.
"We cannot wait, honestly, for them to go to the sanctuary in Brazil and to have a new life," Sciolla says. "Potentially, in the next few years, Argentina is going to be free of captive elephants altogether."
Watch Lucy: The Stolen Lives of Elephants on CBC Gem.
