Titan

Titan is a male African elephant who was born in Hlane National Park in Eswatini, where he once roamed freely with his familial herd. In 2016, when he was just 7 years old, Titan was one of 17 elephants forcibly removed from his homeland and imported to the United States under the guise of “rescue” during a controversial transfer that sparked international outcry. Rather than being protected in their natural habitat, Titan, his mother Simunye, and the other elephants were condemned to a lifetime of captivity in American zoos.

Following his capture, Titan was sent to the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, where he spent the next eight years confined in an artificial environment that could never replicate the rich, complex world he lost. Deprived of the ability to roam vast landscapes, make his own choices, and remain with his original herd, he instead lived under human control, his life dictated by the demands of the zoo industry.

Like many male elephants in captivity, Titan has been forced to participate in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) invasive breeding program. He is subjected to semen collection procedures—an unnatural and intrusive process—so his genetic material could be used for artificial insemination. In 2022, his semen was used to impregnate Renee, a wild-born elephant at the Toledo Zoo, resulting in the birth of a female calf, Kirkja. Despite being her biological father, Titan and Kirkja will likely never meet, as captive breeding programs prioritize increasing zoo populations over maintaining natural family bonds. Titan also sired another calf through artificial insemination, but no zoo has yet to identify him as the father.

In January 2025, Titan was forced to endure a traumatic transfer which involved him being loaded into an industrial crate and driven on the bed of a truck to Zoo Atlanta. The Sedgwick County Zoo misleadingly promoted this move as being a normal aspect of elephant life, suggesting that this forced zoo transfer via truck “mirrors” a natural social behavior of elephants in the wild. In reality this move represents yet another upheaval in Titan’s life—one that mirrors the fate of countless male elephants in captivity, who are repeatedly relocated to serve the AZA’s captive breeding program.

Zoo captivity denies elephants like Titan the ability to live on their own terms. While in the wild, male elephants gradually separate from their natal herd on their own timeline and form dynamic relationships with other elephants, captivity forces abrupt separations and artificial social structures. Instead of traveling great distances as wild elephants do, captive elephants live in enclosures that limit movement and fail to meet their physical and psychological needs.

Titan’s story is not unique—it is emblematic of the inherent cruelty of keeping elephants in captivity. Zoos claim to promote conservation, yet they continue to breed elephants into a life of confinement while doing next to nothing to protect those still in the wild. True conservation does not involve imprisoning self-aware, autonomous beings for human entertainment; it means protecting elephants in their natural habitats and respecting their right to live freely.

May Titan, his mother, his offspring, and the three other elephants he is confined with, one day find sanctuary—where they can live with dignity and the freedom that should have always been theirs.