The Giza Zoo giraffe known as Sawsan has been suffering from depression for the last three months since her life long friend died. As a result, the zoo signed a contract to buy three new giraffes, one of them is male to meet with Sawsan in an attempt to improve her mental health and help with her depression.
There are so many more stories that prove that mental health issues aren’t only exclusive to humans. An example is the zoo giraffe known as 'Rocca' who suffered from depression because of the visitors’ mistreatment and the staff’s neglect and eventually died.,
Another one is a dolphin trained by Rick Barry. It died by jumping out of the pool. Also, the chimpanzee, Flint, who started distancing himself from his friends and stopped eating after his mother’s death. Flint eventually starved to death.
According to the famous online vet-singer Nadeen Elamrousy, animals are most probable to act upon their instincts and when an instinct isn’t met, their mental health starts deteriorating.
The animals' instincts are not just eating, drinking and mating, they also include playing and having a good time. The animals' mental health is affected by the breaking of habits for example if a dog is used to staying in a large space, it might get depressed if moved to a smaller place.
About the zoo animals and more specifically the giraffes, they originally live in South Africa in wide green spaces. So, it is only logical that they get depressed when moved to the zoos, where space is much smaller, which is why the staff should treat the giraffes with extra care and understand their fragile mental state when they first arrive at the zoo.
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