BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[elephant house]](/editions/1998/10/15/elephantold_200x117.jpg)
The Elephant House was built in 1906 to house one elephant.
(Tony Jones photo)
| ZOOM |
|
Is this any way to treat a 12,000-pound elephant? Cramped, dusty yard? Sterile, concrete cages behind rigid iron bars?
No, it's not. And the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden knows it.
The zoo breaks ground today on Vanishing Giants, a $6 million rehab of the interior of the historic Elephant House and an expansion of the outdoor area. By the time Giants is finished in May 2000, the four elephants, one giraffe and four okapi (a giraffe relative) who share the facility will luxuriate in a 144,000-square-foot (3 1/2-acre) exhibit.
"Every month I get complaints from visitors that our conditions just aren't humane," zoo director Ed Maruska said. "And I can't disagree."
![[elephant house]](/editions/1998/10/15/elephantnew_150x193.jpg)
This model shows how the rehab will expand the grounds to 3 1/2 acres.
| ZOOM |
|
The 1906 elephant house and yard were built for one elephant; the zoo has five, though one (Sabu, its only male) is on loan to Louisville. He'll probably return in 2000 so the zoo can resume its breeding program.
According to standards set by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZAA), a herd of five elephants should have 9,113 square feet outdoors and 2,000 indoors. The facility now has a cramped 4,601 square feet of well-trampled mud outdoors, 1,156 of bare concrete indoors.
The indoor exhibit is all concrete and steel with cages considered too small for an elephant. A typical male weighs 12,000 to 14,000 pounds. A female runs 8,000 to 9,000 pounds. As Mr. Maruska said, "anything that big needs room to lumber around."
Zoos in St. Louis, South Carolina, Oklahoma, New York and Florida also are expanding or have just completed expansions of their elephant exhibits.
Although many of the elements of the new exhibit are in planning stages, it's certain that cage areas will be larger and accessorized in an Asian motif with tropical plantings the animals would see in their natural habitat. Birds, perhaps secretary birds and a group of cranes, will add jungle noises.
The elephants became the center of controversy during a 1997 tax-levy campaign. The zoo needed money to build a parking garage to free up space for the Vanishing Giants project. Mr. Maruska said then that if the levy failed the zoo would have to alter the elephant exhibit and get rid of some of the elephants.
Critics said he was holding the elephants hostage. The levy failed.
Instead of building a parking garage, the zoo acquired three lots on Dury Avenue, which it now uses for overflow parking.
Vanishing Giants is being funded with money raised by the zoo's Circle of Life campaign over the past three years. Cincinnati Reds managing partner Marge Schott contributed the cornerstone gift in late 1995; the amount was not disclosed. Other contributions came from individuals, foundations and corporations.
Plans call for:
A reconfiguration of the inside of the Elephant House.
|
ZOO'S ELEPHANT HERD
|
My-Thai, female, born in May 1973; arrived in Cincinnati in February 1974.
Princess Schottzie II, female, born in December 1975; arrived here in December 1978.
Jati, female, born in January 1987; arrived January 1991.
Ganesh, male, born in Cincinnati March 15, 1998, the first elephant conceived and born in Ohio since the days of the woolly mammoth, 10,000 years ago.
Sabu, male, born in January 1988; arrived here in January 1991; on loan since January to the Louisville Zoo (to make room for Ganesh).
|
Visitors now walk down a concrete center aisle and look through bars at animals on each side. The new plan turns the exhibit sideways with the exhibit stretching wall to wall horizontally across the center of the building. Visitors will walk in and come face-to-face with the animals.
Sleeping quarters will be off display behind the exhibit, giving animals privacy for sleeping and, the zoo hopes, breeding.
Visitors will enter one door to see the elephants, then exit and enter another door to see the giraffes and okapi on the other side.
The bright yellow Moorish exterior, with its domes and pointed window openings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and will not be altered.
Expanded outdoor quarters. The renovation will take over the entire Elephant Lot (225 parking places) and some of the Erkenbrecher lot (50 to 75 spots), extending the yard almost to Swan Lake on the northeast side and close to Wildlife Canyon on the northwest side.
An almost cageless exhibit The outside area will retain a moat but inside, the zoo will become the first U.S. zoo to use loose cables rather than bars. The design was pioneered in Munich.
More "behavioral enrichment." Simply put, the idea is to keep animals busy. That can be as simple as toys, or as complex as pneumatic devices that spray food and force the animals to forage, as they would in the wild.
![[elephant house]](/editions/1998/10/15/elephantold_550x321.jpg)
![[elephant house]](/editions/1998/10/15/elephantnew_427x550.jpg)
![[map of grounds]](/editions/1998/10/15/elephantmap_200x267.gif)