This picture of Patsy the elephant was taken when we visited in January. She has been the matriarch of the elephant herd for 30 years, but was recently suffering due to arthritis. Two days before we visisted in July, she was put down.

Patsy was born in Mozambique in 1966 and sailed to Canada in 1974. She has had 4 babies herself and has cared for the other 6 elephants in the zoo. Because elephants are so closely bonded, they also go through a mourning period when they lose a member. When zoo keepers euthenized her, they left her body in the elephant enclosure overnight so the others would realize that she had not simply disappeared, but died.

Patsy is buried on zoo property. She was 40 years old.

Here are some of the elephants when we saw them. They were unusually calm, perhaps still grieving their friend.