Are Elephants Coming Back to Brookfield Zoo?!

You may remember a time not too long ago where you could see majestic elephants roaming around the pachyderm house at Brookfield Zoo. For about 75 years starting with Ziggy, elephants of all kinds called Brookfield home, but after some ups and downs, in 2010 the last last elephant was moved to a zoo in California. Brookfield Zoo hasn’t had an elephant since. Lincoln Park Zoo hasn’t had one since 2005 and likely never will given how small it is.

Could that be changing?! There has been no official word from Brookfield Zoo Chicago, but there may have been hints!

Today, as the suburban zoo inches closer to their 100th anniversary in 2034, leaders announced it’s Next Century Plan. You can take a deep dive if you want, but if you take a look at some of the artists renderings, there are elephants in the midst! Does this indicate a plan to bring elephants back to Brookfield?!

I’ve read through the plans, and elephants are mentioned a few times: one or twice in captions to images and a few times as descriptors in maps of new layout concepts. It does NOT specifically say elephants are coming back. It would make sense to conceptualize a home for elephants, even if there are no immediate plans for their return. Can’t you see it though?! A giant new habitat that can safely and comfortable house a family of elephants? With the amount of money they are seemingly about to spend, I sure can!

I fully recognize that elephants have been the forefront of anti-zoo sentiment, especially for these large mammals, and I totally understand that. My stance, personally, is that nothing I’ve seen tells me the the people at BZ aren’t caring and compassionate animal lovers who keep the best interest of the animals and their conservation in mind. If anything opposite of that shows to be true, my opinion can certainly change.

I’m going to hold out hope that making elephants such a focal point in the media they are releasing as part of this announcement means we may see them back in Brookfield zoon…uh…I mean soon. Hopefully with better treatment than old Ziggy back in the day.