Hanako, ‘world’s loneliest elephant,’ dies after living more than 60 years in a zoo

Hanako was born in the wild. But she spent most of her life, more than 60 years, alone in a concrete enclosure at a zoo outside Tokyo.

Her name means “Flower Child.”

She became known as the “world’s loneliest elephant” during a failed international campaign earlier this year to get her released from captivity.

On Thursday morning zoo workers found Hanako lying on her side. More than 20 people tried but failed to get her up on her feet to prevent her lungs from being crushed under her own weight. She died later in the day.

Hanako was 69 years old, Japan’s oldest elephant.

“She passed away quietly and calmly,” Kiyoshi Nagai, the head of the zoo, told Japan’s Kyodo news agency. “It's truly a pity. She was the most beloved elephant in Japan.”

Hanako was the zoo’s star attraction, according to the BBC. She was just 2 years old, a gift to Japan from Thailand after World War II, when she took up residence at Inokashira Park Zoo.

She became a celebrity, starring in children’s books and a TV show.

She made headlines again in recent months as the focus of an international campaign started by an emotional online post by a Canadian woman who visited the zoo last fall.

“I was shocked and dismayed to see the conditions of her confinement firsthand," wrote Ulara Nakagawa.

“Totally alone in a small, barren, cement enclosure, with absolutely no comfort or stimulation provided, she just stood there almost lifeless, like a figurine. There was absolutely nothing else for her to do.”

Nakagawa’s blog post, which featured a photo of sad-looking Hanako, set off an “Help Hanako” campaign that went viral, according to CNN.

More than 400,000 petitioners begged the zoo to free Hanako from her concrete home and move her to an animal sanctuary in Thailand.

But zoo officials told CNN in March that because Hanako had trampled two people to death – one was a drunk man who sneaked into her enclosure at night in 1956 – it would be better for her to live the rest of her life in the familiar space.

Plus, they said, she was too old to be moved.

Carol Buckley, an independent U.S. wildlife expert who examined her, told CNN that Hanako would be confused to suddenly be living with other elephants in a sanctuary after a lifetime of solitude.

Buckley suggested improvements for Hanako’s living space and that zookeepers spend more time with her.

Every March the Thai Embassy sent fresh strawberries to Hanako for her birthday, but she was too sick to enjoy them this year. Media reports suggest she had become weak and had been eating less in recent months.

Mourners flocked to the zoo on Friday to pay their respects, leaving cards of condolence and placing flowers in front of her enclosure, The Express Tribune in Pakistan reported.

“I hope that Hanako's legacy will be to inspire her fans in Japan and elsewhere to better educate themselves on elephant welfare and work to expose and improve the living conditions of the many other captive zoo elephants who need us,” Nakagawa wrote in an email to the Associated Press.

“Rest in peace, Hanako. You will not be forgotten.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Hanako, ‘world’s loneliest elephant,’ dies after living more than 60 years in a zoo."