Henry Doorly Zoo gets permit to import 6 elephants from Africa

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Chris Peters

The Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium and its partner zoos in Dallas and Wichita received permits Thursday to import elephants from southern Africa.

In total, 18 elephants will fly on a Boeing 747 freighter from Swaziland to the U.S. in the coming weeks. Each zoo is expected to receive six elephants, which could be on display within the next two or three months.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued permits for the zoos after two months of reading through and considering the 8,000 public comments submitted in November. The wildlife service published a document Friday morning stating, essentially, that it sees no legal reason not to issue a permit. Later Friday, both Timothy Van Norman, who issued the permit, and Dennis Pate, the zoo’s CEO and executive director, confirmed that the permit had been issued.

The permit allows the zoos to acquire the elephants for free from Big Game Parks, an independent nonprofit that manages several wildlife parks in Swaziland. The park was planning to kill the elephants as a population control measure because the growing elephant herd was degrading the park’s food supply and endangering other animals.

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HENRY DOORLY ZOO & AQUARIUM

Elephants get a few sips of water at Big Game Parks in Swaziland, a small African country.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/henry-doorly-zoo-appears-to-have-ok-to-import-elephants/article_e05230cc-c118-11e5-a800-cf8b0cb17e38.html

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Several animal groups are against this. Since it comes down to this or killing the elephants I'll take it. They will not be in solitary, they will have friends. Their new home below.



Chris Peters
Zoo CEO and executive director Dennis Pate stands in front of the 29,000 square foot elephant family quarters, will open soon. The zoo is expected to receive six elephants from Swaziland in the coming months. CHRIS PETERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

[uppityperson]

1. "Since it comes down to this or killing the elephants I'll take it." Agreed

As part of the partnership, the three zoos will send money, estimated to be about $450,000 over several years, to Big Game Parks for black rhino conservation. That money will be managed in a trust that requires the zoos to sign off on progress updates before releasing more money.

"Lots of good things come out of this," Pate said. "No. 1, you save elephants from being culled in Swaziland. No. 2, we get to help rhinos at the same time. And No. 3, we strengthen the genetic pool of elephants in North America and make them more sustainable.

[Sunlei]

2. Swaziland has google streetview enabled. almost no water except the big game farms concrete tanks.

I think these elephants will love their new homes and baths.

[LiberalElite]

3. I read the title and thought Oh WHY -

but now I know they will be better off.

[Jnclr89]

4. Elephants are slaughtered ever day. I cant take it

It's all part of the Ivory trade. Fuck China!!

I saw a video a week ago where some *i**** took out a chainsaw, ran it down an elephants face, then turned it 90 degrees out the top jaw of the mouth. All happen while the elephant was still alive.

The elephant was in extreme pain, was still alive and they said he live for another 48 hour with "half a face".

[Judi Lynn]

5. So much better to bring these beautiful beings to any place which treats them respectfully,

and allows them to live without suffering.

For anyone who hasn't seen the live link to the wonderful elephants at the San Diego Zoo, here it is:

http://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/cams/panda-cam

(Various animal exhibit cams appear at the bottom of the page.)

http://sdzsafaripark.org/elephant-cam

They have a wonderful community there for some excellent elephant citizens. It's almost completely dark now, of course, but in the day time they are beautiful to see.

Congrats to Omaha in acquiring new elephant beings for that fabulous zoo.

[swilton]

6. Actually I believe that the elephants are better off in their own habitats

I have had some experience with the celebration of elephants at the National Zoo. What has happened there and which seems to be the phenomenon around the country is that they build beautiful complexes such as this one to celebrate the elephants only to overstock them at the end of the day. Although I'm not familiar with the economics of zoos, but there is a factor of showing large mammals and offspring to attract tourists and profits rather than benefiting the animals.

In the wild, elephants range widely over a variety of different terrain types and typically travel long distances. African elephants are estimated to walk 30 – 60 km (19 – 37 miles) per day, while Asian elephants are estimated to move 10 – 20 km (7 – 13 miles) per day.

Elephants can be active for up to 20 hours each day walking, foraging (browsing and grazing), dusting, mud wallowing, swimming and socializing. They require enough space to choose their own social partners, allow free association with others when they choose to be together and allow a safe haven when they want to get away. In short, they need to be able to engage in a broad range of species-typical movements and behaviours.

What does that mean exactly? According to many elephant scientists, an enclosure should be big enough to hold a couple of family groups (adults and juveniles numbering perhaps 20-30 individuals divided into several affiliated units) as well as several independent adult males. There are many other considerations, but just these criteria require space on the order of tens of square kilometres. Zoos may not be able to provide this kind of space, but it is clear they can do much better than at present.

http://www.elephantsincanada.com/frequently-asked-questions

Then there is the famous methods to reproduce elephants in captivity by artificial insemination. Yes this is done successfully and I've seen parts of the program in action on a behind the scenes tour of the elephant house at the National Zoo. But while there may be initial success in reproducing an offspring and garnering more tourists and publicity, often these captive breeding programs is short-lived as the majority of calves bred in captivity succumb to an intestinal parasite virus that is extremely prevalent in captive elephants.

The zoos are a Victorian era phenomenon....and go hand in hand with colonialism.

If the animals are to be truly protected, they should remain in their own habitats. Technologically speaking this is easier to be done by transporting zoologists to the animals than bringing the animals to zoo where they are living in the equivalent of modern day prisons. Political-economic dynamics of the hosts countries often hinder animal conservation a la trophy hunting, etc. But the planet and conservation experts should come together to make this a reality rather than having animals suffer in these modern cages.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. They would be if it weren't for people

Who are killing them in ever more horrible ways.

At least in the zoos they are safe from slaughter. And the water they drink is not poisoned with cyanide.

[Herman4747]

8. "18 elephants will fly..."

Some playmates for you, Dumbo!

[Duppers]

9. Beautiful !!!!

Thank you for posting this, Steve!