W. Michael Frye "Momma's Boy"
Like humans, elephants run the gamut of behaviour, intelligence, and evolution. Noble beasts, who honor their dead, teach their children in complex ways, and remember distant relatives... can also run powerfully amuck via those same emotions that betide people. It's hard to picture such a being in a zoo. Any being... though I know that it is coming to the point where that might be the only way to keep species going as we expand our territory and they have no place to go. I also know that many folks are involved in the humane treatment and design of zoos, and I applaud them... loudly. It just makes me sad tonight, like part of myself is not free.
I would like to recommend one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. It is about an elephant and a boy, born on the same farm on the same day, at the same minute, and had a friendship that lasted 80 years. I don't think I got through a single tissue-less page once the first obstacles began, though they're told in straightforward manner, just like the true story it is.
Peace.