Midori is a female Asian elephant who has lived at Miyazaki City Phoenix Zoo for most of her life.
For years, she was used to give elephant rides and pose for photographs with visitors. Wild elephants do not naturally allow people to ride them. To make this possible, they are typically trained using fear and punishment until they stop resisting and obey people.
When the zoo finally ended the elephant-riding program, it was not because of concerns for Midori’s welfare. Instead, they announced they wanted to focus on breeding her.
Midori’s outdoor enclosure offers only a limited environment in which to explore, forage, dust bathe, and express other natural elephant behaviours.
As part of Elephants in Japan’s latest investigation into the welfare of solitary elephants in Japan, we visited Miyazaki City Phoenix Zoo in October 2025. During our visit, Midori and the male elephant Choi were being kept apart after zoo staff reported that Choi had injured her.
Midori repeatedly swayed her head from side to side, a behavior often seen in elephants living in stressful and deprived environments. She also repeatedly struck the gate to her indoor enclosure, as though trying to get the keepers’ attention.
When elephants dust bathe, they throw loose sand over their bodies to protect their skin from the hot sun and biting insects. Midori tried to do this too, but the ground in her enclosure had become so hard that she struggled to scoop up enough sand. Her enclosure also offered very little shade from the hot sun, and the pools contained so little water that they offered little opportunity to cool off. We also observed a damaged toenail, which can become painful if left untreated.
For years, Midori has been treated as a ride, a photo opportunity, and now a breeding animal. She deserves to be seen for what she truly is: a living, feeling elephant whose life has value beyond what she can provide to people. She deserves the chance to live as an elephant, not as something to be used.
A sign promoting photo opportunities and elephant rides with Midori. Since the publication of our report, Miyazaki City Phoenix Zoo ended its elephant-riding program in March 2026 after approximately 10 years, to concentrate on breeding attempts between Midori and Choi.
