Zoo
Los Angeles Zoo
Sprawling wildlife park where a decades-long elephant welfare campaign reshaped how a major zoo treats its animals.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Los Angeles Zoo follows an elephant named Billy, captured as an infant in Malaysia in 1985 and brought here in 1989, whose decades of head-swaying many visitors mistook for dancing. It traces the earlier deaths and mistreatment of elephants Gita and Ruby in the 2000s, and the advocacy campaign that formed around 2015 after its founder watched Billy sway and could not walk away. Look toward the old elephant grounds as you listen, where Billy paced for almost twenty more years.
This audio guide was created using AI.