Little gifts to farewell Kashin the elephant

Many of the 17,000 people who visited the zoo yesterday also spent a few quiet moments at Kashin's grave. Photo / Dean Purcell

Thousands of small children - many clutching tiny bouquets, cuddly toys and glittery cards - filed into the Auckland Zoo to say goodbye to their biggest friend, Kashin the elephant.

About 17,000 people - most of them children - were at the zoo yesterday to pay their final respects to Kashin, who died last week.

Colourful drawings, fruit, cards and tiny flowers tied with string adorned Kashin's grave, as children and their parents gathered to say goodbye.

Youngsters were invited to write messages on a day all about Kashin - with large elephant bouncy castles, elephant face painting and a special video and photo display of Kashin.

Auckland Zoo director Jonathan Wilcken said the zoo hoped to replace Kashin in the next six to 12 months and had long-term plans to extend the elephant area.

The zoo would work with the European Elephant Breeding Programme to secure suitable breeding elephants.

However, Saving Animals From Exploitation (SAFE) campaign director Hans Kriek strongly opposed the plan. He quoted recent research which showed most elephants died considerably earlier in zoos than they would in the wild. "Kashin is a perfect example. Her problems - arthritis and feet problems - are very common in captive elephants," he said.

"That's one of the main reasons they have to be euthanased - they just don't cope."

If the zoo was acting in the best interests of the remaining elephant, Burma, they would relocate her to an open range zoo where she could have the company of her own kind. The zoo could the use the space opened up by the elephant exhibition's closure to give a better environment for other animals that were in "relatively cramped spaces", he said.

"Internationally, there are a number of zoos moving away from keeping elephants simply because they realise they cannot provide them with the environment they need.

"An elephant in the wild on average will roam for 50km a day. What sort of a zoo enclosure can come close to that?"

The zoo yesterday offered free admission to mark Kashin's passing and more than 17,000 people took the chance to visit.

Mr Wilcken said the public was invited to see Kashin's burial spot, an area the elephant loved, which was not usually open to the public.

"We would take her (walking) around the four corners of the zoo and this was a particular area she loved," Mr Wilcken said.