Zoo Provides Home to Elephants

An American zoo will be welcoming more elephants as part of an exhibition of African wildlife. Birmingham Zoo in Alabama will now get a fourth elephant as part of its Trails of Africa exhibit, which is scheduled to run from Spring 2012. The zoo has been waiting for the fourth elephant for some time but another one of their existing elephant occupants had been injured which delayed the project.

Birmingham Zoo CEO, Bill Foster, said: “A knee injury to Ajani, the zoo's 7,100-pound, 10-year-old African male elephant, meant that we were reluctant to introduce a new elephant while we were still treating one of our current bulls.” Birmingham Zoo then had an elephant sent over from Germany, but that three tonne elephant is still in quarantine. Another elephant could possibly be brought in from Tampa Zoo in Florida but it depends very much on the personality of the elephants as bull males are notoriously single-minded.

Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm will go through the same process when they open Elephant Eden at their farm zoo in Wraxall. Although Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm have obtained planning permission for what will be the largest elephant enclosure in Europe, donations are still needed through fundraising. Noah’s Ark is also unsure where it elephants will come from as they will be elephants that are already in captivity, but which have found it difficult to settle into their current surroundings. Elephant Eden will completely cater to all their needs with feed stations both on and above ground, special mud baths and everything that elephants require to have a happy life.