Hogle Zoo’s African elephant mother-daughter pair Christie and Zuri have completed their much-anticipated cross-country road trip to their new home: Kansas City, Missouri.
The elephants, ages 37 and 14, arrived at the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium on Wednesday, said Rachael Eames, Hogle Zoo spokesperson. They are currently being held in quarantine away from the seven other elephants in the Kansas City herd, but will join them once the zoo’s veterinarians and keepers “feel it’s appropriate,” according to a news release.
Staff from both zoos traveled with Christie and Zuri on their move, and two Hogle zookeepers will stick around for three to six months to help the elephants acclimate.
Sean Putney, Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium executive director and CEO, said in a statement that he was “thrilled to welcome these new elephants to Kansas City.” (Even despite Zuri correctly picking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2021 Super Bowl.)
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Zuri, Hogle Zoo's African elephant, picks the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the winner of Sunday's Super Bowl, at Hogle Zoo, on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021.
“I am proud of the time and resources that have been put into this move to ensure the highest level of animal care and wellbeing,” he said.
Hogle Zoo staff announced Christie and Zuri’s move in May, saying it would give Zuri a better opportunity to breed, but details of the relocation — including where the pachyderms were going and when — had been kept secret for the animals’ safety.
Christie and Zuri’s new herd includes females Lady, 55; Lois, Lea, Megan and Tattoo, all 45; and 39-year-old Zoe, as well as an 18-year-old male, Tamani, who is “a genetically diverse match for Zuri,” the release stated.
Once Christie and Zuri join the herd, they’ll live in a 3-acre enclosure with a pool, mud hole, two waterfalls and a shade structure. The Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium completed a $10-million renovation of the elephant enclosure in 2020, after Tamani escaped in 2019. (He was safely returned to the exhibit and no guests were harmed.)
Christie and Zuri’s exit marks a pause of Hogle Zoo’s elephant program, which began in 1916 when it bought its first elephant: a 32-year-old Asian elephant named Princess Alice.
Eames said the zoo would likely announce what animals will fill the elephant’s former enclosure later this year.
