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They're Here! A Month After Leaving Seattle, Elephants Finally Arrive In Oklahoma City

Photos and brochures from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle showing Chai and Bamboo, two elephants that will now reside in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden
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Photos and brochures from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle showing Chai and Bamboo, two elephants that will now reside in Oklahoma City.

After a 30-hour final leg of their road trip that started more than a month ago, Chai and Bamboo finally pulled into Oklahoma City around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The two Asian elephants from Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo had been in San Diego since April due to a storm that diverted the pachyderms to California.

“Both Bamboo and Chai looked great this morning,” said Oklahoma City Zoo Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Jennifer D’Agostino. “They immediately interacted with the Woodland Park Zoo staff, ate snacks including watermelon, cantaloupe, raisins and hay, enjoyed sand baths and explored their surroundings.”

The two elephants will spend 30 days in quarantine before gradually joining the existing five-elephant herd. The Oklahoma City Zoo says Chai and Bamboo will be nearby, but only able to interact through sights, sounds, and smells. But the public could see them in a separate elephant yard as soon as the zoo deems conditions suitable.

Last month a federal appeals court allowed the transfer to go forward after animal rights groups and a city official in Seattle opposed the move. Activists had said the several hundred mile trip to Oklahoma would endanger their health, and that their quality of life would be worse here than in Seattle.

“Oklahoma City Zoo is the best choice and meets our requirements to provide the best social welfare in a healthy environment for Bamboo and Chai,” said Woodland Park Zoo President and CEO Dr. Deborah Jensen. “They will have an opportunity to live and socialize with more elephants and they will continue to receive the same kind of exemplary care they received during their lifetime at Woodland Park Zoo.”

The Woodland Park Zoo recently ended its on-site elephant program, and the Seattle facility decided to send 48-year-old Bamboo and 36-year-old Chai to Oklahoma City. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports the decision came after both a zoo task force and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found problems with the elephant program:

"Significant improvements are needed to improve the social well-being and behavior health of the three elephants, including enlarging the facility, reducing choke points in the barn; the expanding and increasing the enrichment program. ... The zoo should consider using natural breeding if Chai is to be breed instead of artificial insemination to increase the success of having a live birth." . . . The USDA said: Elephants at the facility are sometimes housed over night without shelter from rain when the temperature is above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Staff at the facility stated that during heavy periods of rain the elephants are either locked in the barn or have access to the barn. Due to the conformation of the elephant enclosure, only one elephant at a time may be offered access to both the barn and the outdoor enclosure. On the day of the inspection, one elephant had been locked out of the barn the previous evening with no access to shelter. The local low temperature overnight had been approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit with a rain total of 0.04 inches. According to staff at the facility, elephants have been routinely locked out without shelter during light periods of rain in the past. They also stated that they intended to build a shelter for the outdoor enclosure with a probable October 2015 completion date. The local climate has abundant rainfall. Exposure to rain (especially at cooler temperatures) may cause discomfort to animals. The facility should ensure that all elephants have access to shelter during inclement weather to afford them protection and to prevent their discomfort.

Oklahoma City already has two adult females, 20-year-old Asha and her sister, 18-year-old Chandra, as well as Asha’s four-year-old daughter Malee and five-month-old Achara. A 47-year-old male named Rex also lives there.

The Oklahoma City Zoo's four-year-old elephant habitat spans nearly ten acres, with four available for the animals. A 12,000 square foot barn has space for up to eight elephants.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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