Kumamoto City Zoo African Elephant

This camera looks into the African elephant yard at Kumamoto City Zoo and Botanical Garden, run by the city itself and streamed on its official live channel. The zoo sits beside Lake Ezu in the east of Kumamoto City and combines a zoo and a botanical garden on one site.

The zoo has a difficult recent history. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes damaged the grounds badly enough to close it for a long stretch, and it reopened in full only in 2020 after staged partial openings. The animals stayed throughout, cared for by keepers while the site was rebuilt around them.

African elephants spend a large part of the day feeding, so there is usually something happening. Watch for dust-bathing, trunk use around the water point, and the slow social shuffling that makes up elephant routine. Activity tends to be highest around feeding times and in the cooler parts of the day.