A bond-financed renovation at the Dallas Zoo will be accelerated to provide a new home for an aging zoo elephant whose fate drew national concern.
The Dallas Zoological Society will use $10 million of proceeds from a 2006 city bond issue to build a new four-acre African savanna habitat for Jenny the elephant. The project, with a total cost of $40 million, was to be completed in late 2011 but the new schedule calls for completion in January 2010.
Zoo officials had planned to move the 32-year-old elephant to a wildlife park in Mexico following the death of her companion — the only other elephant in the zoo — in May. Many animal lovers protested the move, and urged the city to instead move Jenny to an animal refuge in Tennessee.
The City Council rejected the plan to send Jenny to Mexico, and told officials to come up with something more acceptable.
Zoo officials said another African elephant will be brought in to serve as Jenny’s companion when the new facility is completed. The new exhibit area will be 15 times the size of the zoo’s current elephant habitat.
Paul Dyer, head of the city’s parks and recreation department, said the zoological society will raise the remaining $30 million for the project.
“The 2006 bond funding, combined with the support of the Dallas Zoological Society, is enabling us to create a new home for Jenny in half the time that was originally forecast,” Dyer said.
