An elephant that was held at an Argentinean zoo inside a concrete pit for almost her entire life has died less than six months after being rescued and taken to a sanctuary.
Pocha was taken to Elephant Sanctuary Brazil with her daughter, Guillermina, who was observed mourning her mother shortly after her death.
The former zoo elephant’s cause of death is not known, but staff at the sanctuary suspect it could have something to do with a so far unidentified chronic illness she may have developed during her years in captivity.
Global Sanctuary for Elephants 2022
“She was perfect,” Scott Blais, co-founder and CEO of Global Sanctuary for Elephants, a charitable organization, told Newsweek. “She was one of those elephants that stole my heart from the get-go…. She saw well into your soul when she looked at you.”
Pocha and Guillermina came to the sanctuary in May 2022 after decades spent in captivity at the Ecoparque of Mendoza, formerly the Mendoza Zoological Park, in Argentina. Pocha is thought to have arrived at the zoo in 1968.
“She was at the zoo in the same exhibit, that concrete pit, for all those years,” Blais said. “That space was just dark, cold, damp, miserable, completely devoid of any stimulation…. She was in there for five decades.”
He continued: “They do a really good job of hiding their trauma. They have a way of compartmentalizing that suffering. They find a way to tolerate it…and they come out with such a resounding resilience.”
Global Sanctuary for Elephants 2022
After they arrived at the sanctuary, Pocha, 57, and her daughter 24, quickly adapted to their new surroundings. “She immediately immersed herself into this world of walking and grazing and dusting and playing,” Blais said.
Guillermina’s transformation was particularly noticeable. “Her relationship with her mom changed dramatically in the months she was here,” Blais said. “She stopped being aggressive, she started being kind, she started being much more nurturing to her mom…. These elephants that have been labeled as antisocial or aggressive, it’s just not who they are here.”
All animals process grief differently, and so far Guillermina has taken most of her frustration out on a bucket she took from one of the other elephants, which she later gave back. “They mourn their dead just like us,” Blais said.
Guillermina has been spending most of her time with the other elephants, which have been accompanying her at night to the small yard where Pocha is buried.
“Shortly before an elephant passes away, their behavior changes,” Blais said. “Knowing what we know now, [Pocha] knew she was not long for this world…. We saw a level of calmness within her.”
After her mother’s death, Guillermina called out to her friends. Each elephant walked up to Pocha one by one to pay their respects. “To watch her four closest friends come over and nurture her in a way they had never had to do before—it’s a difficult time of life, but it’s an important time for all of us,” Blais said.
Global Sanctuary for Elephants 2022
“Bambi was the first one that came up to embrace Guillermina. She approached her knowing something was not right. They were responding verbally and physically in a way that was not typical for them in their normal social interactions,” he said.
Just after midnight, the four elephants all stood on different sides of Pocha’s body, holding a silent vigil.
“Elephants have an innate ability to communicate with each other in ways we will never understand,” Global Sanctuary for Elephants said in a statement. “With all of our years working with elephants, we have never seen this level of herd support given to another during a passing. Their support is proving much more familial in nature than we have witnessed at [a] sanctuary in the past.”
Two of Argentina’s largest zoos—the Buenos Aires Zoo and Ecoparque of Mendoza, where Pocha lived—have recently undergone major transformations. They have switched to a new model of eco-parks where visitors can interact more with the animals and gain a greater awareness of the environmental issues these creatures face.
“They are sending every exotic animal possible to international sanctuaries,” Blais said. “They are also reintroducing or relocating many of the indigenous species that they have there as well.”
For the animals that remain, Blais said, “they are both going to focus on rehabilitation of indigenous animals and possibly breeding them for reintroduction into their natural habitat. They are doing this because they are recognizing the damage that has been caused to most animals in captivity.”
Global Sanctuary for Elephants 2022
Speaking of the sanctuary in Brazil, he said: “This is not ‘natural’ by any means, but we are creating this environment where they can learn what it means to be an elephant, giving them a chance to explore life on their own terms…. We’re just providing a space where they can be elephants.”
Whether Pocha’s time in the zoo was responsible for her death is not known. “Based on the necropsy, there’s information of a problem that was chronic, but we don’t know the origin of the problem at this point. We have to wait for the pathologist,” said Blais, adding that he believes the illness may have manifested during her time at Mendoza zoo.
“We know that the illnesses these elephants have can sometimes be decades old,” he continued. “We see a lot of captive elephants with digestive issues, stomach ulcers, osteoarthritis, infections, a lot of issues with colic…and all of this goes back to the compromise of captivity.
“When we receive the full pathological results it’s going to be really illuminating,” he said.
