27-year-old Asian elephant dies after dog, apparently lost, runs loose at St. Louis Zoo

Updated Wednesday afternoon with more information about the dog.

Rani, a 27-year-old Asian elephant at the St. Louis Zoo, has died.

The elephant died around 4 p.m. on Friday. Zoo officials announced her death Tuesday afternoon, saying that a loose dog may have been indirectly responsible.

“We are absolutely devastated,” St. Louis Zoo director Michael Macek said in a statement. “We ask for the community’s thoughts and support during this difficult time.”

The zoo’s pathologist discovered that Rani had preexisting problems with her heart, though whether they contributed to her death is not yet known. The zoo is still conducting tests.

The immediate cause of death may be related to a small, unleashed dog that was running around in a non-public area near the Elephant Barn. Rani was indoors eating dinner at the time and did not see the dog.

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But an elephant that was outside did see the dog and became agitated. While members of the Elephant Care team tried to catch the dog, others moved the elephant indoors, zoo officials said.

Inside the barn, other elephants began to vocalize, and Rani became agitated by their distress. She too began to vocalize and turn in a circle before collapsing.

Members of the zoo’s Elephant Care and Animal Health teams immediately tried to revive her but were not successful.

After her death, current and past members of the Elephant Care Team spent time with Rani to say goodbye.

The other elephants, who also were given time with Rani, calmed down quickly and are doing well, zoo officials said.

Zoo officials said the dog was small, about the size of an opossum, and was apparently lost. It perhaps made its way onto the grounds through or under a fence or gate. the way other small native animals such as rabbits and squirrels sometimes do, they said. The dog was caught and was turned over to a local shelter.

In 1989, a pack of wild dogs — apparently domestic dogs that had turned feral — killed seven female springboks at the zoo, including two that were pregnant. Springboks are South African gazelles, about half the size of white-tailed deer. Security guards and police killed four of the dogs and captured at least one more.

In 1986, stray dogs roaming Forest Park killed a blesbok antelope and her newborn calf at the zoo. In the 1960s and '70s, three kangaroos and 15 antelopes at the zoo were also killed by wild dogs.

Kenzi, left, takes her first swim with her mother Rani on Sept. 9, 2011.

Rani was 5 when she and her mother, Ellie, came to the St. Louis Zoo in 2001 from another accredited zoo with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

Eight Asian elephants remain at the St. Louis Zoo, including six from three generations of the same family. Among them is Jade, 16, who is Rani’s daughter, and Ellie, 52.

“Rani was a special member of this elephant family group,” Katie Pilgram-Kloppe, zoological manager of the River’s Edge habitat at the zoo, said in a statement.

“While growing up here in St. Louis, she got to learn from her own mom, Ellie, on how to be an amazing mother herself,” Pilgram-Kloppe said.

Fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants still exist in the wild, scattered in discrete habitats across 13 countries. With threats from poachers killing them for their ivory, skin and meat, and human civilization encroaching on the space where they roam, their future survival as a species is uncertain.

The St. Louis Zoo runs the Center for Asian Elephant Conservation as a way to forestall or prevent their extinction. The center aims to preserve the species both in the wild and in zoos around the world.

But animal rights activists argue that elephants do not belong in zoos. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says that “elephants’ needs — such as walking dozens of miles every day for their joint health — cannot be met in zoo exhibits.”

Some zoos agree. The Toronto Zoo and the San Francisco Zoo have phased out their elephant programs. Both sent their elephants to animal sanctuaries in the United States that have much more space for large animals to roam.

The St. Louis Zoo, among others, says that its breeding programs are helping to preserve the species. Three elephants currently at the zoo — Maliha, Jade and Priya — were born there.

The median life expectancy for female Asian elephants under human care is 47½ years, according to the zoo.

29 years of Raja! On December 27, 1992, bull elephant Raja was born. He was the first Asian elephant calf born at the Zoo and is the father of three female elephants at the Zoo, Maliha, 15, Jade, 14, and Priya, 8.

Raja is one of nine Asian elephants in the Zoo’s multi-generational elephant family and the only male. Unlike males, female Asian elephants do not have tusks, so it is always easy for guests to spot Raja! At 10,000 pounds, he also stands out in size!

Enjoy Raja’s special birthday celebration, which includes presents made out of cardboard and nontoxic paint. His presents are full of enrichment including browse, hay and popcorn.

More information: stlzoo.org/raja

The St. Louis Zoo released detailed plans on a few of the main attractions they plan to include at the WildCare Park that is being built in the Spanish Lake area. Video by Allie Schallert, aschallert@post-dispatch.com

1916: Miss Jim, the St. Louis Zoo's first celebrity, parades into town

Miss Jim arrives

Miss Jim, alias Judy, 30 years old,arrived in St. Louis at 9:15 a.m. on April 15 from Lancaster. Mo. Se was met at the freight depot, First and Carr streets by a reception committee. As the freight train carrying her drew in on the Burlington tracks, more than 100 boys ran along side her car.

Miss Jim the elephant

Opera star Lily Pons takes a ride on Miss Jim in this undated photo from the St. Louis Zoo archives.

Miss Jim

Miss Jim was named after James Harper, president of the St. Louis Board of Education, who encouraged children to donate their pennies to pay for the 35-year-old circus elephant. Kids collected 2,384 pennies toward her $3,000 price tag. Miss Jim certainly earned her keep, offering rides from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. daily for about 30 years. She carried about 300,000 passengers, including Fanny Brice and Gypsy Rose Lee. Miss Jim died of old age in 1948.

Pao Pei & Happy

Happy (left), only the fourth panda in America at the time, made his public debut in 1939. About 35,000 visitors watched in delight as he "engaged in a series of comical gymnastics in the course of which it stood erect like a bear, rolled on the floor like a dog and finally wound itself into a ball like a playful kitten," the Post-Dispatch reported. Pao Pei (right) followed a few months later via the private jet of Frank Phillips of Phillips 66. Zoo director George Vierheller hoped the two would mate, but the bears remained just friends until Happy’s death in 1946. Pao Pei died in 1952.

Phil

Named after animal collector Phil Carroll, Phil the Gorilla ruled the St. Louis Zoo from his arrival as a 25-pound toddler in 1941 until his death 17 years later at 550 pounds (though showboating director George Vierheller claimed Phil was the world’s largest lowland gorilla in captivity, topping 750 pounds). His taxidermied remains appeared in the Elephant House, Children’s Zoo and the gift shop.

Blondie

The monthly feedings of Blondie, a 150-pound python with an eating disorder, drew thousands of onlookers to the Reptile House lawn. Blondie refused to eat so, in the 1930s, a young Marlin Perkins would use a plunger to force food into Blondie’s stomach while six keepers would keep her from slithering away.

Randy

When you’re called "lesser kudu," you learn to keep your aspirations in check. But in 1969, the zoo’s Marlin Perkins Society honored the East African antelope by making it the zoo’s official logo. The zoo’s first hand-raised lesser kudu was named Randy after the wife of veterinarian John DeGarmo, who delivered the calf.

Siegfried

Born in a German zoo, Siegfried arrived here when he was 14 months old and lived in the Aquatic House until 1976. Enjoying a diet of 65 pounds of clams and mackerel a day, he grew to 4,000 pounds. Siegfried had a wicked sense of humor, squirting water at unsuspecting visitors. But he had a gentler side, too, allowing fans to tickle his chin.

Mr. Moke

Mr. Moke was the star performer of chimp shows in the 1960s. He came from a long line of talented chimps including boxing monkeys Sock’em Sammy Green and Battling Billy Busch, unicyclist Jackie, "Mary-Had-a-Little-Lamb" player Oophie and dog-riding Sailor.

Jeepers

From the 1950s through 1980s, Jeepers (above) and mate Peepers gave birth to 30 offspring including three sets of twins. But those bundles of joy brought their share of scars for Jeepers, who was attacked by the hyper-protective Peepers. The zoo’s current hippos, females Bibi and Tombi, get along swimmingly at Hippo Harbor.

Peepers

Peepers in the St. Louis Zoo pool with the two baby hippos born to her. The twins were born 3 hours apart- Jeepers & Peepers Nile hippos

Kalista

Kalista delivered a whopping litter of five Amur tiger cubs in 2008. Keepers worried whether the first-time mom could handle the daunting duties, but she proved unflappable as her cubs nipped at her heels. The two males were since moved to Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan. The critically endangered offspring are considered among the most genetically important in North America.

Raja

Raja, the 9,200-pound icon of the St. Louis Zoo, did more than capture our hearts; he forever changed the zoo’s mission and geography. His birth on Dec. 27, 1992, established the zoo’s elephant breeding program, which has produced Maliha, Jade and, soon, two other calves. Raja’s arrival also prompted the construction of River’s Edge. Raja loves eating melons and popcorn and causing mischief. In 1994, "auntie" Donna and Raja broke out of their enclosures and destroyed a keepers’ couch, overturned a TV, busted open a file cabinet and ate Raja’s own files.

Kali

The 850-pound polar bear (pronounced Cully) went on display in 2015 in his $16 million, 40,000-square foot home called McDonnell Polar Bear Point. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com

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Daniel Neman

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