I spend my days alone in a tiny barren yard in Yerevan zoo
My mother is Malka
I was born in captivity in Tbilisi Zoo in 2007. My mother is called Malka haven’t seen her since I was 7 years old when I was taken away from her in to live alone in Yerevan zoo. My father, Bacho, like many elephants in captivity, died early.
My mother shares a barren concrete enclosure with Grand the elephant. Grand was initially held in Yerevan but developed poor physical and mental health so he was brought to Tbilisi zoo and I was sent to a life of loneliness in Yerevan as his replacement.
An elephant’s graveyard
Yerevan Zoo has a history of sadness for my kind. In 1970 Vova could not stand his loneliness any more so he escaped. A tank was sent to stop him and he was shot dead. In 2007 Candy arrived from a Moscow circus and ‘was’ married to Grand, the new resident male. But she died a young death in the zoo in 2013. Grand was alone and in terrible pain from his infected teeth. So he came to Tbilisi for surgery and I replaced him. What will my fate be?
