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WEEKLY NEWS 4: Elephant Dies In Zoo

The past year has placed the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo in Washington, DC, in the limelight after it welcomed the birth of a giant panda. However, the zoo is once again in the news after the tragic death of one of its elephants.

After a lengthy battle with rheumatoid arthritis, Toni, an Asian elephant, died early Thursday morning. Toni was 40-years-old and was one of four elephants, including his mother, that lived at the zoo.

Toni had been in pain for years because of a leg injury that he suffered at his previous home in a small zoo in Pennsylvania. Toni’s injury there highlights what some critics say are the unnatural, cramped conditions in which many elephants in captivity suffer.

To combat this problem, some zoos have expanded or altered their elephant exhibits. A zoo in Anchorage, Alaska, even has plans to install a treadmill in its elephant quarters.

One of the biggest animals on the planet, elephants can walk for up to ten miles a day, and can have territory that spans up to 200 square miles.

In effort to reflect these natural conditions, the director of the National Zoo says he is considering moving the remaining elephants to the zoo’s conservation offshoot, a 100-200 acre enclosure in Virginia.

--Written by Morgan Diamond

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