- The Dallas Zoo today announced that it is the first zoo in North America to combine African elephants with zebras, giraffes, impalas, ostriches and guinea fowl in the same habitat, where these majestic animals can explore the award-winning Giants of the Savanna habitat side by side, just as they would in the wild.
- “The Giants of the Savanna is a mentally and physically stimulating habitat for the animals,” said Lynn Kramer, DVM, vice president of animal operations and welfare for Dallas Zoo Management Inc. “The design is based on field research. In the wild, elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas all move around a lot because they are looking for food, water, and companionship. We created an activity-based, multi-species habitat with the same incentives to encourage them to travel throughout the entire space. The elephants are the largest – so the other animals move around the Savanna based on where the elephants choose to go. The Giants of the Savanna habitat, with over four acres open to the elephants, gives the animals room to roam. We’re observing how they use their space and how an active lifestyle impacts their health and then we share that information with our fellow zoos and researchers studying elephants in the wild.”
Read the full press release (from the Dallas Zoo) here. It's great when research and commerce (i.e., putting the animals in a more naturalistic environment and calling them "Giants of the Savanna" to generate buzz and ticket sales) can come together in a mutually-beneficial way. I find it a little sad, though, that this is the first zoo in the U.S. to combine those (non-predatory) animals. I wonder why that is?
