Six acres of Africa, now part of Lowry Park Zoo, offer a close look at that continent's animals and the feel of being in the wild.
By RICK GERSHMAN
Published May 27, 2004
[Times photos: Stefanie Boyar]
Ellie, an African elephant who mothers the zoo’s four other pachyderms, tanks up on water from a hose held by Brian French, assistant curator of the Safari Africa exhibit.
Greeting zoo visitors to a corner of Africa, these poles, with paintings by Simon Hackshaw, mark the entrance to the new exhibit.
Colby is one of two giraffes that folks will be craning their necks to see, but at feeding time a raised platform will bring the animals and their fans eye to eye.
Matjeka, a 13-year-old female African elephant, is one of four elephants from Swaziland that will be part of Lowry Park Zoo’s new Safari Africa exhibit.
TAMPA - The pitch is that you don't have to go to Africa to see elephants, zebras and giraffes.
The implied pitch: You don't have to go to Busch Gardens, either.
Hot off selection by Child magazine as the nation's top zoo for kids, Tampa's nonprofit Lowry Park Zoo is making a play for at least some of the neighboring commercial theme park's business.
The zoo opens the first phase of its "Safari Africa" exhibit at 9:30 a.m. Friday, touted as the zoo's largest ever. A ribbon-cutting ceremony follows at 10.
The exhibit covers about six acres and will feature the animals mentioned above, plus camels, warthogs, several African birds and bongos, the world's largest antelopes (they average 500 to 600 pounds). Unlike the displays at Busch Gardens, however, Safari Africa is designed to give visitors the feel of roaming with the wildlife - though the humans will actually be kept away by sunken ditches, called ha-has. At feeding time a viewing platform will, it is promised, bring visitors eye-to-eye with giraffes.
Visitors enter the exhibit by passing through a tunnel that helps involve them in the experience, said Brian Morrow, the zoo's director of construction. "When you go down the ramp, you get the feeling of nature overtaking you . . . It's a reminder that in Africa, man doesn't overtake all the areas. You can be on a dirt path with just the animals and you," he said.
"Plus, kids love tunnels."
Pleasing kids was the top priority for Morrow and his crew when they designed the new exhibit.
"We really focused on children, which is one reason we stayed away from the using just the colors you would see in Africa," he said. "On a color chart, they would be 90 percent earth tones. So we took our colors from a dress from Swaziland, the African area where our elephants came from. So we could use indigo and green - bright, vibrant colors that still say Africa. That's all in an effort to attract the kids' attention."
The elephants will be the first at the zoo in more than 10 years. In July 1993, handler Charlotte "Char-Lee" Torre, 24, died of head injuries after being knocked down and repeatedly kicked by Tillie, a 9,500-pound, 31-year-old Asian elephant. Tillie was moved to an animal sanctuary after the incident; about three weeks later, the zoo's only other elephant, Minyahk, also was moved.
After Torre was killed, zoo spokeswoman Heather Sitton said, management "decided to reduce the zoo's risk with elephants to zero until they could afford to care for elephants in a "protective contact' manner. This was in the best interest of both elephants and staff at the time."
The current "protective contact" method, she said, will ensure handlers' safety while working with the five African elephants, which occupy a 2.5-acre area, Safari Africa's largest exhibit. A barrier or protective area always separates an elephant from its handler, she explained. Positive conditioning also is used with this method, Sitton said: "We ask the elephants to do something and if they do it, they receive a treat. They've learned how to go in and out of their night house and exhibit yards, get baths and receive medical checkups."
Just as Lowry Park Zoo is bringing elephants back, the Detroit Zoo - one of the most respected zoos in the nation for animal care - is taking them away.
Detroit Zoo director Ron Kagan recently announced the zoo's two female Asian elephants, Winky and Wanda, will depart this summer or early fall.
Kagan said his zoo could not meet "all the physical and psychological needs of elephants in captivity, especially in a cold climate."
Sitton said Lowry Park Zoo's elephants will be outdoors year-round within an area almost double the size of the one in Detroit.
"Elephants at the Detroit Zoo spend many months indoors due to cold weather, which appears to be the main reason why Mr. Kagen has decided to relocate them," Sitton said.
"All exhibits at Lowry Park Zoo are designed for animals that are from similar climates. You won't see a polar bear exhibit at Lowry Park Zoo because they would not thrive in the warm weather - just as elephants do not thrive in cold weather."
The oldest and largest of the five elephants, 20-year-old Ellie, has assumed the matriarchal role, teaching the younger elephants how to play with toys and interact. The crew includes two other females, Matjeka (pronounced mah-chee-EGG-ah) and Mbali (um-BALL-ee), and two males: Msholo (um-SHOW-low) and Sdudla (STOOD-lah). The smallest is Mbali, who weighs in at a scant 3,510 pounds.
Ellie, born in Africa, came to Lowry by way of another North America zoo, but her compatriots were saved from death by their arrival here. They were living in an animal reserve in Swaziland that had become overpopulated. Had they remained, they would have been killed to level the population, zoo officials said.
Animal rights groups tried to stop the importation of elephants from Swaziland to Lowry Park Zoo and the San Diego Zoo, contending that wild elephants housed in zoos are more likely to die young. They questioned whether all the animals really came from the preserves noted in the import permits, and disputed the zoos' contention that the only way to save the elephants was to send them to the United States.
But as it is, the elephants are settling into their new home in Tampa - and getting plenty of peanut butter.
Guests often will see the elephants enjoying their "enrichment items" - toys that "stimulate their social and psychological well-being," said Brian French, the zoo's assistant curator for the Africa exhibit. Those items include hollowed logs filled with peanut butter, along with ropes and tractor tires.
Since elephants also enjoy stripping bark from trees - a pastime that sometime has endangered their native habitats - zoo personnel also provide them large tree limbs to skin.
Safari Africa also includes an overlook area in which guests can feed giraffes. Zoo officials expect guests to be impressed by the initial phase, and they plan to add many new features over the next few years. Ultimately Safari Africa will consist of dozens of African animal species dwelling across 11 acres of rainforest and savannah.
That was the size of the entire zoo when it reopened in 1988. Including the first phase of Safari Africa, the zoo now covers about 56 acres, said zoo spokeswoman Heather Sitton.
Safari options eventually will include travel by boat and sport utility vehicle in addition to camel and foot. The boat safari will be the next phase to be completed, and it should open by next spring, Morrow said.
But even at full size, Safari Africa won't compete with Busch Gardens, known also for its thrilling roller coasters and live shows, noted Morrow, who previously worked at Disney's Animal Kingdom: "Our Africa is quite a different Africa."
The Safari Africa expansion is the largest in the history of the natural-habitat zoological park, which also features Florida wildlife, the Florida Manatee and Aquatic Center, primates, Asian animals, a free-flight aviary, a petting zoo, Stingray Bay and Wallaroo Station, an Australian-themed children's zoo.
In addition to the recognition by Child magazine, Lowry Park Zoo was recently designated by the Florida Legislature as a state center for species conservation and biodiversity, which will help it attract private and federal funding to support conservation and education.
- Information from Times files and the Detroit Free Press was used in this report.
QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE RESIDENTS OF SAFARI AFRICA:
* Many scientists believe the closest living relative to the elephant is the manatee. About 50-million years ago, scientists think, they stopped living on land, their front legs became flippers and their back legs disappeared.
* Though warthogs can be fierce fighters, they actually prefer to run from confrontations. They flee at speeds of up to 30 mph.
* A group of giraffes is called a troop or a tower. The sociable animals, the world's tallest, actually can see behind their heads, helping them look out for predators.
* Zebras live in close-knit groups called families or harems. Extremely loyal, they slow their pace for weak or injured family members and never leave them behind. Family members sleep in turns to ensure some members always are awake.
* Though bongo antelopes will be seen daily at the zoo, in the wild they are among nature's most elusive animals. Many live in dense jungle and thick bamboo forests.
* The African ground hornbill gathers food in a curious way. It will go about filling its beak with an assembly of lizards, frogs, snails and insects. But if it comes along something tastier, such as a spider or large grasshopper, the hornbill will pick up the new food, set down its previous spoils and then rearrange everything so it all fits in its beak.
SOURCE: Lowry Park Zoo
PREVIEW: The grand opening celebration for Safari Africa is 10 a.m. Friday at Lowry Park Zoo, 1101 W Sligh Ave., Tampa. Included with regular admission: $11.50 adults, $10.50 50 and older, $7.95 ages 3-11, free for younger children. There is a $3 additional charge for a short camel ride and $6 for the longer "camel safari," which allows guests to tour the exhibit on camel back. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Call 813 935-8552 or www.lowryparkzoo.com
