Johannesburg, South Africa - The last elephant in South Africa's national zoo has been released into a reserve by wildlife rights groups, which said Wednesday they are pushing the country's only other zoo with the animals to do the same.

The 42-year-old elephant called Charlie was removed from the national zoo in Pretoria and transported to a reserve in the northern Limpopo province, where he was released on Monday by the EMS Foundation.

This was a result of years of negotiation with the South African government which was provided with scientific evidence that elephants suffer in zoos, the foundation said in a statement.

Captured from his herd in Zimbabwe when he was around two years old, Charlie was sold to a circus to perform tricks and moved to the Pretoria Zoo in 2001.

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"The science is clear that elephants are defined by space and should not be in captivity," executive director Michele Pickover said.

The only other zoo in South Africa with elephants is Johannesburg's city-run zoo, which has three, she said.

"We are litigating against Johannesburg over those," she said.

The release of Charlie does not necessarily mean the government has decided to stop all exhibitions of elephants in its zoos, but it does not appear to have plans to get more, Pickover said.