The newcomers from Swaziland won't be on display until Lowry Park Zoo's Africa exhibit opens in the spring.
By GRAHAM BRINK
Published August 23, 2003
TAMPA - At first, the elephants were coming to the Lowry Park Zoo. Then they weren't. Then they were again.
The four teenage pachyderms have arrived.
They spent Thursday night and Friday recovering from their 18-hour flight aboard a Boeing 747 from Swaziland via Johannesburg, South Africa.
On the trip, they were given water, some food and tranquilizers to help them relax.
"Three of them slept most of the way," said zoo spokeswoman Trisha Rothman. "Everything went smoothly."
The elephants will remain in quarantine until they pass the government's required tests, including those for tuberculosis. They are housed in the new elephant night house and have access to paddocks. They won't be on public display until the zoo's 11-acre Africa exhibit opens in the spring.
The two males were housed together because they knew each other on the game farm in Swaziland. The two females were not as well acquainted but appeared to be getting along. Elephants take some time to introduce themselves, said staff veterinarian Dave Murphy.
"They don't just shake trunks and sit down together," Murphy said. "So far, they are settling in well."
In an effort to further education about elephants, the zoo is considering having local elementary and middle school students compete to name them. Elephants can live 50 or 60 years.
The elephants were born in South Africa and slated to be killed before a game farm in Swaziland took them in about 12 years ago. But the habitat in Swaziland's protected areas came under extreme pressure from too many elephants, officials said. The herd needed culling one way or another, they said.
Lowry Park and the San Diego Zoo received permits to import 11 of the elephants. But animal rights groups launched a legal battle, saying zoos were not the place for wild elephants.
They argued that zoos had limited space and that tourists could travel to Africa to see the animals in the wild. The coalition of groups said they would pay to relocate the animals to parks near Swaziland that had expressed interest in taking them in.
Earlier this year, the groups persuaded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recall the permits on what both sides agreed was a legal technicality. The zoos sorted out the problem and again got the go-ahead.
During the delay, officials who run the reserve said they would kill the 11 elephants if they weren't shipped by the end of this month.
The animal rights groups tried unsuccessfully earlier this month to persuade a judge to again delay the importation. Last week, three animal rights activists protesting the importation were arrested at the zoo.
On Thursday, the 11 elephants were flown to South Africa. When they arrived at Tampa International Airport, two flatbed trucks took four elephants to the Lowry Park Zoo. The other seven flew on to San Diego.
The U.S. zoos have agreed to donate $132,000 to expand Swaziland's protected reserves.
Debbie Leahy, spokeswoman for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said Friday that no zoo in the country has enough space for animals that can walk up to 30 miles a day in the wild. She said the animal rights groups will continue to protest the move and any future moves to import elephants to zoos.
"This had nothing to do with saving elephants," she said. "It had to do with buying threatened animals so that the zoos could profit from it."
Murphy disagreed, saying the elephants will help educate the public to the plight of elephants in the wild, which can lead to stronger conservation efforts. The elephants will also help bolster genetic and reproductive research.
"The world would be worse off is there weren't zoos championing those ideas," he said.
