I had felt something was wrong from the first moment I entered the elephant house at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. I was on assignment with camera in hand to take photos of the zoo’s residents. It had looked like an uneventful job on paper. But as I looked through the viewfinder at the two elephants I realized there was more going on than met the eye — something poignant even tragic.

 

The zookeeper answered my unspoken question: Today was Gabi’s last day at the zoo.

 

Gabi the baby elephant was one of the zoo’s most popular attractions. But Baby Gabi had begun to act up; he was attacking other animals. Even his Thai trainers Preda and Shitri couldn’t stop him from harming others.

 

 

Gabi was examined by a team of zoo “psychologists” otherwise known as zoologists who presented their diagnosis: Gabi needed more space than the Jerusalem zoo could provide to curb his aggressive behavior. The only solution was to banish him to a foreign zoo.