A herd of seven African elephants, scheduled to be culled in Swaziland due to overpopulation, safely arrived in San Diego on a truly "jumbo" plane in August 2003. They are one of the most genetically valuable African elephant herds in North America.
One of the Park's Asian elephants, Carol, became famous in the 1970s for her ability to "paint." Her paintings were used as fund-raisers.
An African elephant named Hatari starred in a 1962 motion picture of the same name with John Wayne before arriving at the Wild Animal Park.
In 1989 the Wild Animal Park began a "protected contact" system for handling elephants. In this system, keepers work with elephants from a shielded position, usually behind a barrier with openings that allows access to the elephant. We now work with other animal species in the same way.
It's not a UFO! The round, yellow object in the background of our Elephant Cam is the Park's Balloon Safari ride.
