Yossi, the first elephant born on safari, is the oldest elephant in the world living in a zoo • It has 19 offspring and is also the largest elephant in the zoo in the world • Today marks International Elephant Day

• Mazel Tov! Yossi's birthday celebrations, yesterday

  Photo: 

  Noa Toledano

• Birthday treats. The staff treating Yossi, yesterday

  Photo: 

  Noa Toledano

• The oldest and largest of the elephants living in zoos. Yossi the Elephant, yesterday

  Photo: 

  Noa Toledano

On a safari in Ramat Gan, yesterday (Tuesday) they celebrated the 46th birthday of Yossi, an African savannah elephant that has become the oldest elephant in the zoo. The celebrations also took place on the occasion of International Elephant Day which took place today.

Photo: Noa Toledano

Yossi, born in 1974, was the first elephant born on a safari, something that happened a few months after the zoo was officially opened to visitors. His father Timbo died in Yossi's youth, and his mother, 59-year-old Bhatti who still lives on safari, is considered the oldest elephant alive in all of Europe's zoos.

In his youth, Yossi was the smallest elephant on a safari, but over the years it has grown to such large dimensions that at a height of 3.80 meters and weighing seven tons it has become the largest elephant in zoos in the world. Yossi has 19 offspring and he holds the European record for breeding. As part of Yossi's birthday celebrations, his team of caregivers decorated the courtyard of the compound where he lives with lots of vegetables, fruits, leaves, sugar cane, carobs and other surprises.

Further reading:

• Amazing observation in Eilat: a pair of spotted stingrays

• The next generation of orangutans

• Exciting: The dog was returned to its owner after a year

International Elephant Day is designed to raise public awareness of the condition of elephants in the wild, due to the fact that every quarter of an hour an elephant is hunted in the wild for the use of their ivory butts, a very expensive material traded for use in tools, keyboards and jewelry. In addition, the brains of elephants are the largest of the terrestrial mammals.