Zoos urged to halt imports of African elephants

Wildlife experts have called for Chinese zoos to stop importing elephants from Africa, saying they cannot meet the animals' physical or psychological needs.

In January, four young elephants were imported from Zimbabwe, two for Xinjiang Safari Park in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and two for Taiyuan Zoo in Shanxi province. However, one at Taiyuan Zoo died soon afterwards.

Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior study expert with Elephant Voice, an NGO in the United States, said confining wild elephants to cages should be stopped.