Delaware Online
April 26, 2007
Original Article
The Philadelphia Zoo’s three
African elephants will move to the Pittsburgh
Zoo’s International Conservation Center
in Fairhope, Somerset County.
The elephants were originally slated to move
to the Baltimore Zoo, but a delay in exhibit
plans caused the zoo to look for another home.
The International Conservation Center will not
be a public facility and officials say they hope
to encourage the elephants to breed there.
“The ICC will enable the Pittsburgh Zoo
to play a major role in addressing the need to
increase successful reproduction in the African
elephant population in North America, and to
develop a national program for training managers
and keepers to provide the highest level of care
for these magnificent animals,” says Dr.
Barbara Baker, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh
Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
Besides breeding and housing elephants and other
rare and threatened African and Asian species,
the ICC will train wildlife management students,
zoo keepers and handlers.
The elephants, Petal, 51; Kallie, 24; and Bette,
23, are expected to move to the 724-acre site
in the fall.
A fourth elephant from the Philadelphia Zoo,
Dulary, went to a sanctuary in Tennessee.
|
