The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has officially approved the importation of the elephants from Swaziland to zoos in Wichita, Dallas and Omaha.
The agency “has determined that an application… to import up to 18 elephants from Swaziland to the United States meets regulatory requirements,” a spokeswoman said Friday in a statement. “The Service therefore has approved the permit request.”
The Sedgwick County Zoo, the Dallas Zoo and Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo will each get six African elephants under an agreement announced last fall. The fifteen females and three males will come from a wildlife trust in Swaziland, a southeastern African monarchy sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique.
The Sedgwick County Zoo is scheduled to open its Elephants of the Zambezi River Valleyexhibit Memorial Day weekend.
“We’re excited but we still have got a lot of things to get done before we open this exhibit,” zoo director Mark Reed said Friday.
The zoos needed federal approval to transfer threatened or endangered species across borders.
Opponents of the transfer may seek to block the transfer, which they say could be harmful for the mental and physical health of the elephants. They also contend the import is primarily to make money and not for conservation purposes, which would violate international law.
“We are very disappointed to see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so egregiously disregard those standards,” said Carney Anne Nasser with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “It’s clear that’s the primary purpose for this import.”
From Swaziland to Kansas
The 18 elephants were confined to small enclosures pending the outcome of the import decision.
The three zoos said they would work to quickly get the elephants settled in America in a joint statement Friday morning.
“We want to get them here as soon as we can and we’re basically starting to work out the details on that,” Reed said. “It’s our desire to get them out of there as quickly as we can and get them acclimated and settled into their new homes here.”
Reed said the Dallas Zoo received the permits and shared them with the zoos in Omaha and Wichita. Reed said they were excited to receive a copy this morning.
“Nothing is final in life until you actually have that piece of paper in your hand,” Reed said.
The elephants will be flown to the United States aboard a chartered 747 from Swaziland. Reed said he assumed the plane would stop in Dallas, Wichita and Omaha, in that order.
The three zoos will split the cost of the transfer, but Reed said the final cost is currently unknown.
“Other than it’s going to be a lot,” Reed said, laughing. “Yeah, a lot.”
“I’ve said all along no one zoo could do this whole thing,” he said. “That’s why we got the three in collaboration to secure those kind of things.”
Reed added the zoo will probably have two of its staff members helping with the flight. Federal wildlife authorities will also oversee part of the transfer.
“We are taking every step possible to ensure the transport of these elephants is humane and does not place them at undue risk or endanger their health,” according to the Fish and Wildlife Service statement.
The permit applicants argued the transfer was necessary because the elephant population in two national parks was harming vegetation and other species, such as the black rhino. Big Game Parks, the wildlife trust responsible for the elephants, said the elephants would be killed if the import were not approved.
Under the agreement, the zoos will contribute $450,000 over five years to Big Game Parks.
Opposition ‘disappointed’
Several major animal rights groups are fiercely opposed to placing wild elephants into captivity in foreign zoos.
They argue Asian and African elephants are social, migratory animals that should remain in the wild or in wildlife sanctuaries.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Carney Anne Nasser said the import “does not meet the letter and spirit” of international law against commercially trading endangered or threatened species.
“The zoos have publicly spoken about how much they’ve looked forward to ticket sales skyrocketing after babies are born,” she said. “And commercial purposes include captive breeding programs.”
Some of the groups tried to get the public comment period extended to this month, which could have delayed the Service’s decision. But the comment period closed Nov. 23.
The nearly 8,000 comments submitted to the government were largely on their side. According to federal documents, 85 percent of public comments were “generally opposed to the proposal to import.” Only 14 percent voiced support for the import.
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