Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Harry Peachy gets face time.


Picture TOM DODGE | Dispatch Assistant curator Harry Peachey gets face time with Phoebe, 21, at the Columbus Zoo. He doesn't think zoo elephants typically die at age 16. "Middle-aged" would best describe most of the 13 elephants at four Ohio zoos. They range in age from 20 to 41 if you don't count two youngsters. Like many other zoos, Columbus also is trying to improve elephant life by having them live in matriarchic groups of grandmothers, mothers, daughters and aunts, as they do in the wild. "In the long run, that may be one of the more significant changes for elephants," said Harry Peachey, assistant curator for the Columbus Zoo. The oldest captive elephant on record lived to be 86, but the norm seems to be in the 40s and 50s, said Peachey, Click here to read more about elephants By Kathy Lynn Gray THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH OHIO USA