By Danielle Wong, National Post

The surprise death of a Toronto Zoo elephant yesterday offered a fresh challenge for veterinarian staff who have learned that elephants, like humans, mourn the death of their loved ones.
When Thika found her mother, a 38-year-old African elephant named Tequila, dead early at the zoo’s outdoor elephant exhibit, she stayed beside the body for four hours. Thika even started digging at the ground and throwing dirt on her mother’s body, as if hoping to get any response at all.
It wasn’t until Toronto Zoo staff stepped in between the two elephants that Thika parted from Tequila.
“Elephants are extremely intelligent,” the executive director of conservation education and research at the zoo, Dr. Bill Rapley, said yesterday.
“When we look at animal behaviour, it’s so hard to put it in human perspective. But elephants seem to show responses that are human-like.”
In fact, Thika was looking around the exhibit last night, as if trying to find her mother, Dr. Rapley said.
Elephants are known to spend a lot of time caressing the carcass as well as conduct burial ceremonies by walking around the body and laying clumps of grass and tree branches over it, Ms. Cartwright said.
Herd members will even stop years after at the sites where their loved ones died, she said.
“It’s probably not good to have elephants held in captivity because they’re so social,” Ms. Cartwright said, but added she was pleased the zoo gave time for the elephants to mourn Tequila.
The Toronto Zoo now has an elephant herd of five females.
Tequila, who was named for her “fiery disposition” and dominance over the other elephants during her earlier years, became a pleasant animal liked by zoo keepers and the herd as she got older, Dr. Rapley said.
The 3,738-kilogram elephant came to Toronto from southern Africa — most likely Mozambique — on a Polish ocean line ship in 1974.
She had two calves with bull elephant Tantor: Thika was born in 1980 and Tumpe, who is now at the Animal Kingdom in Disneyland, in 1983.
Tequila was in very good health and showed no signs of illness, Dr. Rapley said. “It’s somewhat distressing to us ....We’ve got an animal in good condition ... that seemed to be doing absolutely fine and suddenly dropped dead, which is very perplexing.”



Rest in peace Tequila,
you are missed.

Love, Inda


“I am the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be, and my desires are like seeds left in the ground: they wait for the right season and then spontaneously manifest into beautiful flowers and might trees, into enchanted gardens and majestic forests.” "

Khalil Gibran

This is very sad. We have been sending donations for the elephants at the zoo for a few years, and this is like losing part of our family.

Love,
Vicky

http://www.elephant-news.com/index.php?id=4141

The surprise death of a Toronto Zoo elephant yesterday offered a fresh challenge for veterinarian staff who have learned that elephants, like humans, mourn the death of their loved ones. When Thika found her mother, a 38-year-old African elephant named Tequila, dead early at the zoos outdoor elephant exhibit, she stayed beside the body for four hours. Thika even started digging at the ground and throwing dirt on her mothers body, as if hoping to get any response at all.



Beyond Forget

I would like to go
To a place that's never been.
Where pain is gone
And memories are left behind.
A place beyond forget.

Eric P. McCarty

I feel quite upset about the passing of Tequila. She was part of our animal family.

May she have found beautiful forests and meadows to roam around in.

Love,
Sue

I am not one to keep animals in captivity, but the Toronto zoo has an excellent staff that provides the best possible care to all the animals that they are responsible for.

May Tequila enjoy the freedom of Elephant Heaven.

Love,
Gisele

Thank you for adding your prayers for Elephant Tequila.

May she enjoy heavenly bliss.

Love, Inda


Thank you Sue for the image of Tequila

What a beautiful Ellie!

quote:

Originally posted by dear Inda:
May she enjoy heavenly bliss.

Love, Inda


Thank you Sue for the image of Tequila

Amen and Awomen!!!

Sending love and prayers, dear Tequila!


May you always find...


Elephant Heaven (The Australian)
"Asian elephants who arrived in Sydney on Thursday appear to have adapted quickly to their new environment.

They swam in the pools of their enclosure, sprayed dirt over themselves and tore up the grass, unconcerned by the zoo staff and the crowds who came to see them.

NSW Environment Minister Bob Debus spruiked the arrival of the elephants, after 18 months of controversy and legal action by animal welfare groups, as a triumph for the state's people.

Right on cue, the four elephants splashed and played behind him in perfect tableau for the television cameras.


"The elephants are in fantastic condition, which is a tribute to the dedication and expertise of their keepers, who have lived with them for two years in Thailand and the Cocos Islands," Mr Debus said."



Love and LIGHT BEING, Teom

Rest In Peace Tequila :2hearts:

Thank you Teo and Administrator.
Ellie Heaven is lovely. Tequila will probably enjoy a glass of Tequila yum and that will make har dance with all the heavenly creatres

Tequila and Tara

I love all those images.
Tequila will be missed, may she enjoy animal heaven.

Love,
Vicky


http://givnology.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/46060593/m/6261...001091983#2001091983

ANTHONY REINHART

Eric Cole, Toronto Zoo

E-mail Anthony Reinhart | Read Bio | Latest Columns
September 6, 2008

Sure as the sun rose each morning, Tequila the African elephant could be found lumbering about her enclosure, eager to fortify her imposing bulk with a bale of hay for breakfast.

Such had been her routine since the summer of 1974, when the young orphan from Mozambique took up residence with the rest of the elephants at the newly opened Toronto Zoo.

When the zoo's elephant keepers reported for work on Tuesday, they expected no different. But there was nothing routine about what they found in the enclosure, a scant half-hour after sunrise: Tequila, all 3,738 kilograms of her, lifeless and slumped against the fence as her adult daughter, Thika, pawed the ground and threw dirt over her body.

"It was so sudden that I think we're still all in shock," said Eric Cole, supervisor of the zoo's African Savanna section, as workers quietly tended the herd's five surviving members. "She was still very active and healthy; no arthritis, no health problems that we knew of. I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd lived another 20 years ... but you never know."

Elephants can stay outside for an hour in winter.

Here is Tequila in the snow, carrying a snowball

I am sorry that Tequila left so suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving her daughter to mourn.

Sending prayers that she is enjoying herself in the vast and beautiful animal heaven.

Love,
yoko





Why should we not assume that
life and death are equally good?

Lin Lei