LJWorld.com

Seattle — On a sunny July day, Chai the elephant browses on grass and branches in the 1-acre elephant exhibit at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. Children lean over the metal barriers, trying to reach the enormous charismatic creature.

In the nearby elephant barn, Watoto stretches her trunk to a net filled with vegetation and munches on her lunch before wandering back to the outdoor exhibit. Teenagers watch her, mimicking the movements of her trunk.

Zoos showcase such scenes as evidence of the healthy and happy experience of their elephantsy. Animals rights groups dismiss such enclosures as woefully small and harmful to the health of creatures meant to roam vast wildernesses.

Across the country, some zoos are bowing to animal-rights groups' pressure by shipping their elephants to sanctuaries, while others are building larger enclosures to ward off criticism about the animals' living conditions.

Animal-rights groups have intensely scrutinized zoos where elephants live in cramped circumstances or without companionship for more than a decade. Since 2000, some zoos, including Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco, have given up elephants entirely, conceding the enormous animals need too much space and money to maintain. Other zoos are following suit, either moving their elephants or not planning to replace aging animals after they die.

In Alaska, publicity about Maggie, the lone elephant at Anchorage's zoo, prompted the board to agree earlier this year to send her south. Seven zoos in warmer climates are vying for the 25-year-old elephant.

But officials at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan., are planning a new elephant space for 2009 that will give Stephanie and Cynda, their current female African elephants, and five new elephants 3.6 acres to roam. In Oakland, Calif., four African elephants wander more than five acres of elephant habitat, the result of a $100,000 expansion.

After years of lobbying by animal-rights activists, 46-year-old Ruby of the Los Angeles Zoo retired to the Performing Animal Welfare Society's elephant sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif. But the zoo's other elephants soon will enjoy a new $39 million, 6-acre habitat.

Such changes don't satisfy many animal-rights activists, who argue elephants belong in the wild or in much bigger sanctuaries.

"The zoos are knowingly acting irresponsibly in keeping the elephants on surfaces and spaces totally inadequate for them because they don't want to lose their biggest attractions," said Elliot M. Katz, president of In Defense of Animals.

In Seattle, elephant welfare jumped into the headlines after the sudden death of Hansa, a 6-year-old Asian elephant who died of a previously unknown type of herpes virus infection.

Zookeepers expected criticism from animal-rights groups, which they see as a thinly veiled campaign to eventually close zoos entirely by attacking their most popular and charismatic attractions.

"The people who really care about animals are in zoos," said Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo Deputy Director Bruce Bohmke. "And we are constantly challenged to find a way to make zoos better."

Most zoo directors maintain it's not the size of the exhibit but the quality of care and the use of space that matters. Some zoo officials use Woodland Park Zoo as a positive example because they say its layout maximizes an acre of land for three elephants.

"We still get visitors who can't find the elephants," Bohmke said. "It's a very long acre."

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums requires at least 400 square feet of indoor space and 1,800 square feet, about the size of six parking spaces, to house an elephant.

"We felt and we continue to feel that space is very arbitrary," Mike Keele, deputy director of the Oregon Zoo and chairman of the association's elephant advisory group. "What is really important is the animal's condition and if they are behaving normally."

Animal-rights activists argue the creatures need far more space. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has 2,700 acres for 23 elephants, and the Performing Animal Welfare Society's California sanctuary has 75 acres for eight elephants.