Elephants, rhino have returned to Fort Worth Zoo in new habitat. Here’s what to expect

Years of anticipation came to a head on Thursday as the Fort Worth Zoo welcomed visitors to its grand opening of Elephant Springs, a renovated habitat that has nearly tripled the amount of exhibit space for seven Asian elephants and a male greater one-horned rhino.

A group of zoo members and city leaders, including Mayor Betsy Price and her grandchildren, watched as elephants emerged from a renovated barn and roamed near watering holes.

Ramona Bass, the chair of the Fort Worth Zoological Association Board of Directors, said the “very, very special exhibit” builds on the zoo’s national reputation. Last year, the zoo was ranked No. 1 in North America by a USA Today panel of industry experts.

“(Our elephants) get to swim, they get to be submerged like they are in the wild and they can go completely under,” Bass said. “They each have their own yard, and they [can] choose to go out anytime. We can also open up the whole exhibit and they can flow back and forth as they would in the wild.”

A new protruding deck puts visitors closer to the animals and allows for interaction with the herd through water guns that spray streams of water onto the elephants, said Chris Wilde, the chief executive officer of Dunaway Associates, an engineering firm that took the lead on designing Elephant Springs.

“We’ve put a lot of energy into this, and it’s pretty amazing to see it come to life and see how the elephants are interacting with the visitors and the water,” Wilde said. “We essentially doubled the habitat space, and between that and the 400,000 gallons of water that we put in the river, it really gives the elephants a lot of enrichment.”

The exhibit marks the second phase of “A Wilder Vision,” a $100 million campaign to revamp several locations of the zoo and add new ways for visitors to interact with animals over the course of 20 years. Africa Savanna, the first major renovation, opened to the public three years ago. Expanded habitats for lions, tigers, hyenas and other species will open in 2023 under the name Hunters of Africa & Asian Predators.

Behind the scenes of the redesign, Bass said, are the zoo’s efforts to conserve and breed Asian elephants and rhinoceroses, which are endangered species that are often poached for their skin and ivory. They also face significant habitat loss due to agricultural expansion and deforestation, making it possible for the elephants to become extinct in the wild within the next 20 to 25 years, according to the zoo.

While zoos across the country are backing off of elephant exhibits due to high expenses and wildlife regulations, the Fort Worth Zoo is “doubling down” on its commitment to care for Asian elephants and wants to bring in females to breed with Bowie, the male elephant born in 2013, Bass said.

Not everyone is thrilled with the zoo’s plans to expand its elephant herd. Last year, animal rights groups were critical of the zoo’s plans to buy two female elephants from African Lion Safari in Canada. In Defense of Animals ranked Fort Worth the No. 2 Worst Zoo for Elephants in North America for the “record-setting” $2 million deal, which included a $200,000 bonus if one of the females gave birth to a calf.

“Those people have their own agenda, I’m not quite sure what it is, but you realize they never say one word about our care, or our zoo, or our barn, or our water,” Bass said. “How they can say that about us is absurd.”

But the African Lion Safari deal fell through in March, when Fort Worth officials withdrew their permits and decided to focus on opening the Elephant Springs exhibit, said Avery Elander, the zoo’s assistant director of communications. That decision was celebrated by Will Anderson, elephant campaign coordinator for In Defense of Animals.

“This dirty deal would have caused many elephants a great deal of trauma and put a dangerous price on the head of every wild and captive elephant, including those at circuses which profit from sales to zoos,” Anderson said in a statement. “We encourage all zoos to acknowledge the suffering caused to elephants by captivity and to commit to shutting down their exhibits.”

Fort Worth does not currently have any immediate leads or plans to obtain more elephants, Elander said, though they have room for four more. Officials are hope to bring in a female partner for their existing rhinoceros.

The zoo will continue breeding elephants in the hope of keeping the species alive and making it possible for future generations to see them, Bass said. She added that Bowie is going to “have a wife or two” in the future.

“Breeding and taking care of elephants is a major thing for the zoo, and we’re going to keep doing it,” Bass said. “Bring it on.”