You may have read J.B.’s post last month about our neighborhood elk and her new chance to live a life in the wild. Well, to no one’s great surprise, she did not take to the wild life.
Yesterday, Ellie the elk was moved to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle where, after a quarantine period, she will be introduced to two females and a male elk (with two more females to join soon from Northwest Trek). There were several stories about the move in the local press, because Ellie (better known as Buttons) is quite the celebrity. I thought the story in the Yakima Herald contained the most information.
It’s never a happy day when a wild animal is put into captivity, but she was clearly not adapting to the truly wild life. In an ideal world, Ellie wouldn’t have faced that choice so late in life, but she did. She was at the mercy of those who are tasked with handling wildlife – in this case, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. In many situations with a habituated wild adult animal, the animal is put down. Scott McCorquodale of WDFW, however, went out of his way to find a different solution for Ellie.
We are happy that the zoo agreed to make a home for her where she will have another chance to be with her own kind and where her many human friends can keep tabs on her. Wouldn’t it be great if more zoos were able to provide homes for animals like Ellie?
We are REALLY hoping it works out for her, and we remain available to help if she’s not able to integrate with the elk at the zoo. There’s a small celebration for Ellie/Buttons on March 27th for anyone who’s local. Here’s the Facebook page about the event.
Below is a video from 2014 of Jamie and Ellie:
In chimpanzee-specific news, the chimps, as I suspect many humans in the area, were outside this morning enjoying what genuinely felt like spring!
To set the scene, when I opened the door to give the chimpanzees access to Young’s Hill, Missy raced outside with Annie, Foxie, Jody and Burrito following her (Jamie and Negra remained in the greenhouse finishing their breakfast). All five of them walked the full path around the perimeter, which was clear of snow thanks to J.B. plowing a few weeks ago.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, I spotted Foxie and Burrito coming down the other side and saw that Foxie was thinking about veering off the path well-traveled onto the hard-packed snow.
She checked in with Burrito, but he was not interested in this adventure and continued on.
Foxie is known to be simultaneously adventurous and cautious, so she wasn’t about to just nonchalantly stroll onto the icy snow. She needed to test it out by first punching it and then putting just some of her weight on it.
When she was satisfied that it could hold her full body weight, she took a couple of tentative steps:
Jody, in the meantime, was watching all of this from below. Jody, being the manager/den mother of the group, seemed a little concerned. I’m not sure if it was because Foxie was the last one still up the hill or if Jody thought Foxie’s steps onto the snow were ill conceived.
In any case, Jody went up to collect Foxie, and Foxie obliged by following her back down the hill – on the proper path.
I’m sorry to hear Buttons wasn’t able to be reintegrated into the wild. It’s such a shame when wild animals need to be cared for, but at least she has another chance. I’m hoping she will find a new home and new friends. Good luck to her.
Thank you for the Ellie update, I think it might be a good place for her.
She was so friendly/tame with people, I was really worried about her.
I’ll try and visit her, I live within walking distance of the Zoo.
I have mixed feelings about Zoo’s…. But in some cases like this,
it really seems perfect 🙂
Thanks for the update on Ellie! (“Buttons” still doesn’t sound right :))
While it’s not ideal, I’m so happy the DFW managed to find a solution. She is so comfortable around people, the only thing I think she’ll have to get used to is not being able to roam around wherever/whenever she wants. Is the space at the zoo is decent size?
I haven’t seen the space at the zoo. Here’s a description from their website (it doesn’t include the enclosure size): https://www.zoo.org/northerntrail
Maybe this will be a good, safe fit for Ellie…..
Like we ever thought the wildlife park would work for poor socialized Ellie, even though we all really wanted it to work. Oh Ellie. The video of Ellie and Jamie is very telling, their lives similar. Two wild minds and hearts forced to live captive lives, but at least Jamie, living at CSNW, has found her very best option in sanctuary life. Jamie is living a life of autonomy in her home, all wild captive animals should be so lucky. While I am not a fan of all zoos, I was happy to see to see WPZ is a member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. If they live up to the content on their website, they will clearly provide Ellie-Buttons with a well deserved captive home. The best part being, hopefully, Ellie will integrate with her species. And I was impressed that the zoo wants Ellie to be an Ambassador Species for their zoo. If Ellie’s story can reach and teach people to not nurture and feed wild life Ellie will do an extraordinary service for all wild animals (Way to go Ellie!). I was also very impressed with the zoos information on Orangutans : in the wild, at the zoo, and their Take Action information on Plam Oil. Clearly this not your average zoo. I am keeping my fingers crossed for our beloved Ellie-Buttons. She deserves a safe, well lived, rich life with other elks, even if it must be in captivity. On my next trip to WA I may have to plan a visit to the Woodland Park Zoo!
And I love little Foxie’s brave snow crust adventure, as short lived as it was! She’s delightful.
Kathleen,
If you get a chance to visit Ellie/Buttons at the Woodland Park Zoo please give us an update. Let us know how well she is doing.
Thanks, Hope
I hate zoos too and circuses. I guess I’m not sure what is going on with buttons . Because she was in the wild for a long time The video is from 2014. I’m curious if she was just sick. Blog does not mention if she was seen by a wildlife vet. Perhaps a wildlife rehab /santutuary I could have been a wiser choice ? But again not much to go one with what was presented to us in the blog. I do not like zoos and wonder why that was a first choice .
Nancy – the link to the Yakima Herald article in the blog post tells the story of Buttons pretty well. Though she was not captive, she was never truly wild since she was raised by humans.
Really sad things didn’t work out there for Ellie. Hopefully my mistrust in zoos generally will be unfounded in this instance.
As for Jody looking out for her friend Foxie, it just made my heart melt. Proving once again that humans are not the only animals imbued with empathy
Such a sad sad story about Ellie (Buttons). I read the Newspaper article about her predicament and the photo of her in a cage just broke my heart. She was accustomed to roam free, now she will be confined in a zoo with other elk that she has no connection with and gawked at my humans. NOT A VERY HAPPY ENDING. I LOVED watching her roam about at the Sanctuary on the morning walks with the Chimps.