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LA Zoo Elephant has Pathological Behavior, Expert Says
Already under construction is a 6-acre elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. But tomorrow, the city council will take up a motion to stop the project. Animal friendly Councilman Tony Cardenas wants the city to develop a 60-acre elephant preserve instead. Joyce Poole, a pachyderm expert, said the zoo's elephant--Billy--is bobbing and swaying his head. "I know that some people believe that elephants do that in the wild, but having observed elephants for many, many years, seeing perhaps 10,000 different individuals ... I have never seen head-bobbing and I have never seen swaying," Poole said. "This type of behavior is pathological. It is a result of being in a confined space."
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