Editing Oregon Zoo (section)

=== Elephants ===
The zoo rose it popularity locally in 1953, when Rosy the [[Asian elephant]] was acquired. The zoo became world-famous in 1962 when the Asian elephant [[Packy (elephant)|"Packy"]] was born.  He was the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years and was (as of 2010) the tallest Asian elephant in the United States at 10.5&nbsp;ft (3.2 m) tall. A total of 28 more calves have been born at the Oregon Zoo, including seven sired by Packy (two of which, Shine and Rama, remained at the zoo), making it the most successful zoo elephant breeding program in the world.  On August 23, 2008, Rose-Tu, the granddaughter of the zoo's first elephant Rosy, gave birth to a son named Samudra. The birth made Samudra the first third-generation captive-born elephant in North America.<ref>{{cite news |title=Free the elephants! Problems plague the Oregon Zoo's pachyderms |url=http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=3107 |newspaper=[[Willamette Week]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050217164242/http://wweek.com/story.php?story=3107 |archive-date=2005-02-17 }}</ref>

Attendance in 1962, the year Packy was born, was 1.2&nbsp;million people.<ref name="oreg76mar25">{{cite news|last=Richards|first=Leverett|title=New director predicts bright spring look for Portland Zoo|work=The Oregonian|date=March 25, 1976|page=A21}}</ref> Over the next several years, the number of animals declined, from 450 (representing 150 species) in 1962 to 386 (representing 123 species) in 1976, and annual attendance also declining over the same period, reaching its lowest point in 1975, with 448,198 visitors.<ref name="oreg76mar25"/>

On February 9, 2017, Oregon Zoo staff decided to euthanize Packy after a long struggle with drug-resistant tuberculosis. He was laid to rest at an unidentified city-owned "wooded, grassy area" that is not open to the public.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/02/oregon_zoo_employees_visitors.html | title=Oregon Zoo employees, visitors mourn death of Packy, Portland's 54-year-old elephant | first=Lizzie | last=Acker | date=February 9, 2017 | newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] | access-date=9 February 2017 | archive-date=26 April 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426075843/http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/02/oregon_zoo_employees_visitors.html | url-status=live }}</ref>