Like their wild counterparts, captive elephants are in danger of becoming completely extinct. If their birthrate does not improve, in 40 years there will be only 22 captive Asian elephants left in North America among the 300 in captivity today. Cutting-edge technology has enabled experts to artificially inseminate elephants in captivity. The program shows how an international team of experts uses fiber optics to deposit sperm into Shanthi s birth canal. Three months later, it s clear that Shanthi is pregnant.
Existence is especially tenuous for male elephants in captivity.
Because males can be dangerously aggressive, few zoos want the responsibility of caring for them. Soon, there may be no place at all to live for the 39 male Asian elephants in North America. In one scene, the elephants are led on their daily constitutional to the river a spectacle that draws tourists from all over the world. Ironically, many elephants in captivity have been put to work in logging operations, and thereby made to contribute to the decline in their natural environment. As a result, the dense and congested streets of cities like Bangkok harbor homeless elephants that live with their keepers on undeveloped lots.