Ruby (elephant)

"Ruby" was a 4.5 ton Asian elephant who lived most of her short life at the Phoenix Zoo. She became famous for her paintings, which raised money for elephant care at the zoo.

Ruby was born in Thailand, probably in the summer of 1973. She was shipped to the Phoenix Zoo in February of 1974, where she lived alone for a number of years. Her painting career began when her keepers saw her scratching in the dirt of her enclosure with a stick, and offered her a brush and paints.

In time, she was moved into the main enclosure with the zoo's two other elephants, both African. African and Asian Elephants are of different species, and Ruby did not get along with the other two. The decision was made to breed her, to provide her with companionship.

At the age of twenty, Ruby was shipped to the Tulsa Zoo to mate with a male elephant named Sneezy. Moving an elephant such a distance is often very stressful, even lethally so, but Ruby survived the transport well. She lived in Tulsa for two years, and when she became pregnant was returned to Phoenix in 1996. Another female Asian elephant was "loaned" to the Phoenix Zoo to be Ruby's companion until she gave birth.

In November 1998 Ruby began to show signs of labor, but the birth didn't start. Eventually the zoo's veterinarians determined that her calf had died in her womb, and the decision was made to perform a Caesarean operation. When surgery began, it was discovered that her uterus had ripped and a massive infection had spread through her abdominal cavity. Her fetal calf weighed 320 pounds, twice the size of a normal newborn elephant.

Ruby was euthanized immediately, November 6, 1998, at the age of twenty-five. Her death triggered an outpouring of grief throughout the Phoenix area. When the Phoenix Zoo announced a free-admission day in Ruby's memory, 43,000 people attended, nearly triple a normal day's attendance.

ee also

List of historical elephants

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/06/dead.elephant/ Ruby's obituary at CNN]
* [http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1998-12-10/news/trunk-murder/ Phoenix New Times article]