Az állatkertekben miért nem tartanak erdei elefántokat, ha afrikaiakat és ázsiaiakat igen?

Nehany japan es amerikai allatkertben tartottak, de valoban kevesebb peldany volt beloluk, mint a masik ket fajbol:

[link]

Korabban ezekben az europai allatkertekben tartottak erdei elefantokat:

[link]

Pl. Woburn, Whipsnade, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg...

Engem tortenetesen nagyon is erdekelnek. Ezt a bronxi allatkert egykori igazgatoja, William Hornaday irta az ott tartott, a szokasosnal is kisebb termetu erdei elefantrol:

Keeper Richards declares that our late African pygmy elephant, Congo, was the wisest animal he ever has known. I have elsewhere referred to his ability in shutting his outside door. Richards taught him to accept coins from visitors, deposit them in a box, then pull a cord to ring a bell, one pull for each coin represented. The keeper devised four different systems of intimate signals by which he could tell Congo to stop at the right point, and all these were so slight that no one ever detected them. One was by a voice-given cue, another by a hand motion, and a third was by an inclination of the body. Keeper Richards relates that Congo would go out in his yard, collect a trunkful of peanuts from visitors, bring them inside and secretly cache them in a corner behind his feed box. Then he would go out for more graft peanuts, bring them in, hide them and proceed to eat the first lot.

[link]

Vagyis hogy az erdei elefant ertelmesebb volt, mint barmely mas allat, amellyel az emlitett apolonak dolga akadt, beleertve a szinten ott tartott ket masik elefantot, egy azsiai elefantbikat es egy afrikai szavannaelefantot.