Smokey the Elephant

Black text around an illustration of an elephant on a bright pink background

Smokey was an 11 foot-tall, 7 ton African bull elephant who was housed at the Oakland Zoo in California for over 25 years. He was well-known for being one of three male elephants in North America capable of breeding and he was also known for killing one of the zoo's animal keepers in 1991. The trampling death of the zookeeper led to new methods of caring for elephants in captivity that did not require the trainers to be in direct contact with the animals. Smokey passed away in 2001 from an unknown illness.