what would a zoo do with a dead elephant?

Question

just wondered how you would get rid of a large dead animal like an elephant hippo or rhino

Answer 1

Here is the Elephant Necropsy Protocal which is for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. It is quit in depth on what they can and cannot do in regards to the carcass of the animal, depending on the circumstances of the death. Itis extremely long so I on;y included the link.
http://www.elephantcare.org/protodoc_files/new%2006/ElephNecropsy2005.pdf

Answer 2

Depending on the exact situation:

- Donate them to a local museum for research or a mount. This takes a good chunk of money, so does not happen often.
- Cut up for animal foods on the zoo's grounds. This depends on the animal being healthy, and the zoo having the resources to butcher such large animals.
- Taken away for disposal, which also depends on budget, local facilities, etc.
- Buried on the zoo grounds. This actually happens rather often for the big animals- it is just too cost prohibitive to do anything else with them!
- Big animals may recieve a quick 'autopsy' on the grounds- but if you don't have the resources to move or protect it from spoilage, this has to happen pretty quickly. I know one zoo would drag the carcass to the burial site, dig the hole, put the animal in it, then allow the vet or researchers to work on it all they wanted. When the time was right, you just move some dirt and you are done.

Answer 3

I've always wondered about this myself. I know of
one zoo which was confronted with a dead elephant 40 years or so ago. I don't know what
they did with it. The most obvious thing to do with
it is, as another person has said, feed it to the cats
and other carnivores. Nowdays there are so many
silly restrictions placed on what can be done with
animals, by legislators who know nothing useful
themselves and bow to pressure groups, that
there is no telling what must be done with them.
I didn't call up the protocol listed in one of the
answers because I'm sure I would find it too
depressing and infuriating.

Answer 4

Depends where the zoo is and what the Elephant died of.
Some would recycle the animal if the death was not cancer related or through poisoning.
Others have in the past offered the beasts to Natural History outlets. Most Western zoos today will however cremate the body so they don't create any controversy.

Answer 5

Quite often when an animal dies in the zoo from known causes, and not some mysterious disease, they use it to feed the big cats. It's what they would eat anyway, so with the case of an elephant, I imagine they take the chain saws to it, and feed the lions

Answer 6

The dead elephant would also be valuable for its tusks and the other animals for their skins..Even the skeleton of these animals may be donated to a Museum.

Answer 7

Most cities have an animal disposal facility. For instance, where I live, the facility will pick up a horse that has passed away and cremate it for the owner for a fee.

Answer 8

Lions and tigers need to eat...2 problems solved at once.
(There's bound to be a namby pamby who will say it's immoral)

Answer 9

They would do voodoo magic to make it come alive again so that they dont have to lift it and carry it out of the zoo.....

Answer 10

The legs are sold to kebab houses.