An aged Japanese elephant that sparked controversy about zoo conditions has died aged 69.
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She outlived the life expectations for Asian elephants, which the Smithsonian say can lived to 60 in the wild.
Hanako passed away on Thursday after 20 zoo staff members attempted to raise her to her feet by rope, a common technique used when elephants remain lying on the floor, according to Mashima.
The zoo said a transfer would not be possible because she was too old to endure the journey. She died peacefully in the afternoon.
She spent most of her life in captivity as the star attraction at Tokyo’s Inokashira Park Zoo but became the center of a growing campaign to improve her living conditions after a picture of her inside her concrete enclosure was featured in a blog post.
At 69-years-old, she was the country’s oldest elephant.
There are calls for her to be repatriated to an elephant sanctuary in the land of her birth.
“Totally alone in a small, barren, cement enclosure, with absolutely no comfort or stimulation provided, she just stood there nearly lifeless, like a figurine”.
The Elephant Freedom Fighters set up a online petition to have her moved from her “concrete prison” to a sanctuary in Thailand.
The Thai embassy said the death of Hanako – a goodwill Thai ambassador to Japan – has “saddened the people of Thailand and Japan”.
Inokashira Park Zoo had acknowledged it was not fully equipped to keep an elephant, and that Hanako would be its last, but officials had maintained she did not like change and should not be moved.
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Mourners flocked to the zoo on Friday to pay their respects, leaving cards of condolence and placing flowers in front of her enclosure, The Express Tribune in Pakistan reported.
