Nearly a year ago, when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck San Diego County, a herd of African elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park captured the hearts of many.
Surveillance cameras recorded the very moment they formed a circle to protect their youngest, as the earth trembled.
“We learned something about elephants that day and how they care for each other in a situation like an earthquake,” said Shawn Dixon, president and CEO for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Elephants are well known for their intelligence and highly social behavior. Especially for those under human care, they thrive best in a family group, park officials said.
At a time when many zoos across the U.S. have been shuttering their elephant exhibits because they can’t provide the space and companionship the pachyderms need, the Safari Park stepped up.
On Thursday, after a few years under construction, it opened the Denny Sanford Elephant Valley.
Officials said it’s the largest project in the park’s 50-year history and brings the public to the epicenter of its conservation efforts for elephants.
“It’s an opportunity where you really feel a little bit smaller, you feel like you’re part of nature, and that’s really what we’re hoping for our visitors,” said Patrick McTigue, the interim executive director of San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
More space to be a family
Over the past few years, the home of the eight-member herd at the park has expanded with more areas to roam, bathe and sleep. There are also more opportunities to keep them engaged, officials said.
Take, for example, the random relocation of water sources and puzzle feeders that encourage the elephants to work together to hydrate or eat, just as they would in the wild.
“We want to encourage them to figure out how to find food and water,” said Kristi Burtis, the vice president of wildlife care at the park. “So, it’s not just always put in front of them.”
The valley also features two watering holes, including a pool that holds up to 250,000 gallons of water, enough for the elephants to submerge themselves, Burtis said.
Construction happened around them, she added.
“We agreed that we wanted to keep them here but that did expand our project timeline, because, again, we took little small parts of the habitat at a time and developed them as we went.”
Close enough to see their eyelashes
As you enter Elephant Valley, the first thing you notice is a long, meandering walkway to the herd. It’s marked all over by their massive, circular footprints.
And just before spotting the elephants, you pass by a “baraza,” which is Swahili for meeting place, and an archway made of trees the elephants knocked down.
These features were intentional, McTigue, said. They tell the story of the elephant: an intelligent, family-focused animal and nature’s engineer.
The 13-acre valley allows people to walk alongside the elephants in some areas. They can see them passing a bridge and at eye level from open-air restaurants.
“As you come into the passage itself and you get to see our herd for the first time, you can see Mkhaya, you can see her eyelashes. You can see Zuli’s wrinkles on his skin,” said McTigue.
The valley features a two-story lodge, called the Mkutano House, with three restaurants and bars overlooking the lagoon.
Over the past two decades, about 40 zoos across the country have closed or pledged to shutter their elephant exhibits because of the pachyderm’s need, in part, for larger social herds that some facilities could not accommodate. But there’s also a trend of some zoos increasing their investments in elephants.
The Tulsa Zoo, for example, completed an extensive renovation of its elephant barn and preserve two years ago. And it took in the last two remaining elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo. The Cincinnati Zoo also recently spent tens of millions of dollars to build a multi-yard habitat for a herd of Asian elephants.
Even with expanded space to roam and live as a herd, animal advocacy groups argue that efforts have fallen short, affecting elephants’ physical and psychological welfare in the long-term.
In a statement, the nonprofit In Defense of Animals said, in part, Elephant Valley’s 13 acres “is severely inadequate — elephants are highly intelligent, highly active animals who need complex ranges that can be traversed in days, not minutes.”
But Dan Ashe, president of the nonprofit Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said the new enclosure allows “elephants to be elephants, expressing behaviors as they would in the wild. People that come to see them will have a picture into the magnificence of the natural world, and by visiting will be helping to conserve elephants and nature by supporting the incredible conservation work of the San Diego Wildlife Alliance.”
The association has recognized the Safari Park with “meeting the highest professional standards in animal care and welfare.”
