Sep 25, 2009 4:15 pm US/Central
Dallas Zoo's New Home For 'Jenny' Almost Ready
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
One of the best-known icons of the Dallas Zoo will soon have some new digs.
Jenny the elephant and her new friend Gypsy, will have a large ten-acre space to call home next spring.
CBS 11 went on a first-ever tour of the facility with an international consultant who is helping shape the project.
"Ultimately it's about the animals. It's about the animals."
Dr. Charles Foley has spent his career studying the migration and habits of elephants like Jenny and Gypsy, only in the wilds of Africa.
Today he's getting his first look at the new 'Giants of the Savanna' habitat under construction at the Dallas Zoo.
It will house giraffes, warthogs, impalas, zebras, and especially his beloved elephants.
"It's a case of providing the very best you can provide and using the most up to date scientific knowledge to basically provide things that will keep those elephants happy."
Jenny became the spark for controversy after her long-time elephant companion, Kate, died last year. For a while Jenny was headed to Mexico, but protesters demanded she be sent to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.
Instead, the zoo provided Jenny a new friend in Gypsy, then ramped up plans for the habitat.
Dr. Foley - here to stump for the elephants and lecture on their habits - likes what he sees.
"The animals have to be happy; the animals have to be given an area, an enclosure, an environment where they can survive."
The project is really on a fast track; from design and conception to opening day...In just about 18-months.
Visitors will come up in a lookout platform in the center of the habitat and get a 360-degree view of how the animals live.
Gary Lee is the project architect "We as visitors can watch and see them in their natural habitat and understand and learn how elephants really are in the wild."
The zoo plans to add four more elephants for Jenny and Gypsy after the new habitat opens.
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