Dame Joanna Lumley has backed calls for an end to elephants in UK zoos.
There are currently 50 of the animals held in zoos, including two housed on their own.
Dame Joanna has voiced an animation by conservation charity Born Free which tells the story of the elephant whose death 40 years ago prompted the start of the group.
Dame Joanna, 77, said “I am truly honoured to be part of this poignant and important animation, to lend my voice to it, and to the vital campaign to phase-out the keeping of elephants in zoos in the UK.
“I have been fortunate enough to have travelled the world, and on my journeys, I’ve had the privilege of observing these magnificent creatures in the wild – where they belong.”
She urged people to “tell those in power” that elephants do not belong behind bars.
Dame Joanna added: “We need an elephant free UK. Their future is in our hands.”
In 1969, Pole Pole the elephant starred in the film An Elephant Called Slowly with Dame Virginia McKenna and the late Bill Travers MBE.
She was gifted by the Kenyan government to London Zoo where she died while being moved to another facility, resulting in a huge public outcry.
Chris Lewis, Born Free’s captivity research officer added, “It’s forty years since the untimely death of Pole Pole at London Zoo.
“Sadly, we seem to have learned little or nothing since then. Wild elephants live in large herds, range over hundreds, sometimes thousands of square kilometres of natural habitat for which they have evolved over millennia.
“Wild individuals can live into their seventies. By contrast, captive individuals continue to suffer reduced lifespans, high infant mortality, poor health, inadequate social opportunities, and enclosures thousands of times smaller than their wild range.
“Yet elephants continue to languish in zoos across the UK, Europe and the wider world.”
At least 75 per cent of the public believe the next UK government should end the keeping of large animals in zoos, a poll for Born Free in February showed.
Mr Lewis said: “We need an end to the keeping of elephants in zoos. The UK government can set a strong international precedent by announcing plans to phase-out captive elephants. Enough is enough.”
Between 2000 and 2020, 51 elephants were born in captivity in the UK. Over the same time period, 53 died.
Infant mortality was four times higher among elephants in captivity compared with those in the wild, while stillbirths were twice as high.
Meanwhile the average herd size in a UK zoo is three compared with between seven and 16 in the wild, according to the charity.
