Kirkja

Kirkja is a female African elephant who was born at the Toledo Zoo & Aquarium on February 17, 2024 to two wild-born elephants who never met. Initially thought to be a male and named Kirk, the zoo discovered three months after her birth that she was a female and renamed her Kirkja. 

Kirkja was conceived via artificial insemination, a process whereby her father Titan, who is confined at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, was manually stimulated by a human to force him to ejaculate so the zoo could retrieve his sperm. Her mother Renee was restrained and tubes were inserted into her reproductive tract so that Titan’s semen could be injected into her body. 

Beginning shortly after her birth, Kirkja has been subjected to training sessions with direct human contact. Their purpose is, in part, to familiarize her with humans and cause her to become compliant for medical exams and other interactions with humans she will be required to participate in. She is housed in an environment wholly unsuited for elephants: an exhibit slightly larger than an acre, together with three other elephants (her mother, an unrelated adult male, and an adult female). Nothing about Kirkja’s unnatural zoo existence bears any resemblance to what an elephant life should look like. Had Kirjka been born in the wild like her parents, Kirkja would be spending her time with her familial herd–being cared for by her mother, aunts, grandmother, and female relatives–and playing with other young elephants. 

Kirkja, like all elephants, deserves to live freely in an environment that respects her inherent dignity. If possible, she and her mother should be rewilded and allowed to reintegrate into elephant society in Africa. At a minimum, Kirkja, and the elephants she is confined with at the Toledo Zoo, should be relocated to an elephant sanctuary that can provide them with the space and freedom to meet their complex physical and psychological needs.