At Dallas Zoo: Will giraffes accept the elephants?

By Terry Gardner, Special to Tribune Newspapers

February 7, 2012

Last September when I visited the Dallas Zoo, I learned about its pioneering efforts to re-create an African savanna by mixing elephants and hoofed critters. Although other zoos have mixed giraffes, zebras, guinea fowl, etc., Dallas is the first zoo in North America to add elephants to the mix.

The 11-acre Giants of the Savanna exhibit opened May 28, 2010, with six post-reproductive elephant cows. There are no males, because bull elephants often are more aggressive. Nicknamed the "Golden Girls," Jenny, Gypsy, Kamba, Congo, Mama and Stumpy range in age from 30 to 47.

They have mixed with all the hoof stock except the giraffes. But the giraffes and the Golden Girls have explored one another's habitats and shared hay.

Lynn Kramer, the Dallas Zoo's deputy director of animal conservation and science, said the giraffes don't seem to care when they see the elephants in their habitat. But the elephants watch what the giraffes do in the Golden Girls' habitat.

In October, Kramer visited the Boras Zoo in Sweden, which has been mingling elephants and hoofed mammals for more than 20 years.

"They have four elephant cows and half a dozen giraffes," he said. "They stay in the same barn at night across from each other, and they enter the exhibit the same way. I saw elephants 20 feet away from giraffes, but the staff says they get even closer."

Mingling the animals must be done gradually because of the size, strength and personality of the elephants, Kramer said. "We will handpick some individuals to start it with, then separate them out," Kramer explained. He hopes that at least some of the giraffes and elephants will be mingling by summer.

Courtesy of John Goodall