Philadelphia Zoo to transfer 2 remaining elephants

Say goodbye to the elephants.

The Philadelphia Zoo is transferring its two remaining elephants, Kallie, 27, and Bette, 26, to a conservation center in Western Pennsylvania run by the Pittsburgh Zoo.

"Because we expect the transfer to occur shortly after the July 4 weekend, the next ten days will be the last guaranteed opportunity (weather permitting) to wish the elephants farewell," the Philadelphia Zoo said in an e-mail yesterday to its members.

Because of a lack of funding, the zoo decided in 2005 that it could not build a better elephant habitat, said Andrew Baker, the chief operating officer.

"We do hope to have elephants here at the Philadelphia Zoo in the future," he said.

There is, however, no timetable.

The move ends for now the controversy that began years ago after animal-rights activists complained that the zoo's elephant habitat, about a half-acre, was inadequate.

In October 2006, the zoo announced it would relocate its elephants, and the next year it moved its lone Asian elephant, Dulary, to the Elephant Sanctuary in rural Hohenwald, Tenn. Another elephant to be moved, Petal, died last June at 52.

Kallie and Bette, who arrived in Philadelphia from Zimbabwe in 2004, will be transferred to the Pittsburgh Zoo's 724-acre International Conservation Center in Somerset County.

They will join Jackson, a male African elephant, who was moved from the Pittsburgh Zoo in December.

"It's a bittersweet time for our zoo family, but we are confident that we are doing what is right for the elephants," said Vikram H. Dewan, president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Zoo.

The African elephants will depart in 18-wheel trailers designed to safely move animals that large.

"It's not like moving a sofa," Baker said.

The trip, likely to take four to six hours on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, will be handled by a man who specializes in moves between zoos, Baker said.

The transfer will not be open to the public, but updates will be posted on the zoo's Web site: philadelphiazoo.org

The zoo remains involved in elephant conservation. It has contributed about $100,000 in the last five years to projects in Africa and Asia, and it is committed to an effort in Borneo to save endangered elephants, Baker said.

The Pachyderm House, which opened in 1941, will become home to a rare French livestock breed, called Poitou, that looks like "a very large, shaggy-looking donkey," Baker said.

The area will later become home to the Hamilton Family Children's Zoo, Baker said.