Elephant move FAQs
After many years of calling Melbourne Zoo their home, your friendly neighbourhood elephants are upsizing to a new 21-hectare elephant habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo. Below are some frequently asked questions about the herd and their big move!
The move to Werribee Open Range Zoo
Visitors to Werribee Open Range Zoo are expected to be able to see the Asian elephant her in their new home in early 2025
Zoos Victoria’s herd of Asian Elephants has grown with the recent arrival of three calves, bringing the herd total to 9 elephants. Once relocated to Werribee Open Range Zoo, the herd will live in an expansive 21-hectare open range, naturalistic setting. The world-leading facilities will provide the highest level of care and welfare. Moving the elephant herd from Melbourne Zoo to Werribee Open Range Zoo also paves the way for a new, innovative precinct to be developed at Melbourne Zoo.
The Elephant Trail at Werribee Open Range Zoo will comprise a 21-hectare open range habitat for Zoos Victoria’s growing Asian elephant herd, featuring a central habitat with sandpit and deep-water pools. Visitors will be able to view the Elephant barn including a communal area, training spaces and communal sleeping area. Five outer habitats will retain and build upon existing vegetation and significant trees. Two dedicated overpass bridges will allow Asian elephants to pass over visitor walking trails, between the central management yard and outer habitats.
The design of Melbourne Zoo’s current elephant habitats ensures all of the elephants can exercise and explore natural behaviours by interacting with different substrates and landscapes.
These environments meet biological and physical needs through opportunities for swimming and different ways of foraging for and finding food. The design features of the future Werribee Open Range Zoo facilities will extend and deepen these opportunities.
EEHV
EEHV is a virus that can live in an elephant’s body without causing any symptoms, similar to how some herpes viruses behave in humans and other animals.
EEHV can cause a severe and often fatal illness known as EEHV Haemorrhagic Disease (EEHV-HD). The virus can be found in an elephant’s blood, trunk secretions, saliva, or faeces using a molecular test called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).
There is no vaccine for EEHV yet, and the disease can be difficult to treat once symptoms appear. Researchers are working hard to find effective treatments and eventually develop a vaccine. For most animals who develop the disease, it is fatal, with an 80 percent mortality rate. Many of you will remember our beautiful 9-year-old Man Jai died suddenly from EEHV in August 2023.
Elephants, including members of the MZ herd, are naturally infected with EEHVs through close contact with other elephants within a herd, including their mothers. These viruses occasionally reactivate and are shed in body fluids, infecting other animals. Mostly animals do not get sick during these shedding events, but when they do, it can be catastrophic.
Antibodies for the virus are passed from mother to calf via the placenta during gestation, protecting the calf, but these antibodies wane between 18 months and 2 years. Elephants become more susceptible to the disease after 2 years of age.
EEHVs and the disease they cause occur in both zoo elephants and those in the wild, although diagnosing and treating affected elephants in the wild is more difficult. EEHVs and the associated disease are something that vet and keeper teams across the world are aware of and constantly working towards improving treatment.
We currently conduct weekly tests on all elephants susceptible to EEHV, including Mali, Luk Chai, Aiyara, Roi, and Kati. The current age threshold for testing is 16 years old; however, this will be reassessed when Luk Chai reaches that age next year, as we will have his antibody information by then. If Luk Chai does not show sufficient antibody coverage, we will continue weekly testing. The best chance for survival is early detection through surveillance techniques such as trunk wash testing for viral shedding and PCR blood tests.
In addition to weekly blood tests for susceptible elephants, we also perform trunk wash tests every two weeks. A significant focus is placed on training the elephants for EEHV treatment behaviours, such as pill swallowing, receiving rectal fluids, and blood draws. Our veterinary team is also working diligently to conduct antibody testing on all our elephants to better understand each one's immunity to the different EEHV strains.
The Werribee Open Range Zoo veterinary hospital now has a molecular laboratory and trained staff members to perform qPCR testing on blood and trunk washes. Bringing this work in-house ensures rapid turnaround times for results. We are also working towards regular frequent ELISA testing, which is a laboratory test to detect whether the elephants have antibodies, and therefore some protection, in their blood.
The reality is that EEHV is a very common endemic virus in elephants which can lie dormant, so keeping an animal in isolation would not be the answer to preventing infection and could carry an additional poor welfare outcome for such a socially cohesive species.
It is also important for the calves to be exposed to this virus as their maternal antibody protection wanes so they can develop an immune response to EEHV. Calves not exposed to the virus are highly susceptible to developing the disease if they have their first exposure after they have exhausted their maternal antibodies.
Yes, sadly, Taronga Conservation Society Australia lost an 8-year-old calf, Tukta, to EEHV in 2018.
Man Jai is the second known death from EEHV in Australia.
Yes, it does, but it is a different strain and usually much milder in African elephants than in Asian elephants. There are no African elephants in Australia.
No, these viruses only affect elephants.