But instead, 18 elephants will call the US home at three different zoos, bringing excitement to visitors, and pride to the staff.
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Henry Doorly Zoo’s indoor elephant barn is nearly ready for the six elephants coming in from Africa this fall.
Exhibit under construction at the Sedgwick County Zoo.
The new elephants will include one male and five females. According to the Big Game Parks Trust in Swaziland, the 18 elephants must be exported or picked off to avoid an overpopulation of elephants and to make room for rhinos.
“It’s a little bit of a Martian landscape where the elephants have been”, said Henry Doorly Executive Director Dennis Pate, who visited the park past year.
The Zoo previewed Friday’s announcement on Facebook, saying, “The greenery at the African Grasslands is set!”
“Not a possibility – they would be culled, that’s a for-certain”, Pate said. The country is enduring its worst-ever drought, and officials there had to decide whether to cull the elephants or put a black rhino population already on the brink of extinction at further risk.
The Sedgwick County Zoo, Dallas Zoo and the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha have applied for permits required for their import. The permit requests are now under consideration by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Swaziland wildlife authorities. Currently, the elephants are living in holding areas.
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“There is no better place than our zoo for these animals”, Hudson said. The Sedgwick County Zoo’s new “Elephants of the Zambezi River Valley” exhibit will open to the public next May.
