Henry Doorly Zoo may have saved its six new elephants from death

[Omaha Steve]

HENRY DOORLY ZOO
Unlike other elephants that are experiencing Swaziland's drought conditions, the worst in the country's history, the elephants awaiting transport have access to fresh water.

http://www.omaha.com/living/henry-doorly-zoo-may-have-saved-its-six-new-elephants/article_976cd4af-ef93-5162-843c-79430a06f1f4.html

POSTED: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2015 12:30 AM | UPDATED: 12:53 AM, SAT SEP 26, 2015.
By Chris Peters / World-Herald staff writer

If the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium hadn’t stepped in, 18 African elephants might have been killed.

The elephants live in Swaziland at one of two government parks with 15 other elephants and some black rhinos, among other animals. The country in southern Africa, about the size of New Jersey, is enduring its worst drought ever, and its Big Game Parks Trust had to make a decision: Cull the elephants or put at risk a black rhino population already on the brink of extinction.

In stepped the zoo. CEO and Executive Director Dennis Pate visited the park in February 2014. He was searching for elephants for the zoo’s new African Grasslands exhibit, but more importantly, he said, he heard the park had a dire situation.

Elephants were stripping 900-year-old trees of their bark. They were munching grass faster than it could grow, and they were leaving parks barren. The black rhinos were running out of food.

FULL story at link. Related Story: 6 elephants coming to the Omaha zoo: http://www.omaha.com/living/elephants-coming-to-the-omaha-zoo/article_f6d78b98-639a-11e5-b0a8-73ce4307a070.html

[shenmue]

1. Awesome!