SAN DIEGO, California, April 1, 2003 (ENS) - Charging that the San Diego Zoo and the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida plan to import 11 wild African elephants from Swaziland in violation of U.S. and international endangered species laws, an international coalition of wildlife conservation and animal protection organizations has sent formal notice to the zoos, demanding that they surrender the federal permits authorizing the imports or face legal action. The notice, sent on March 26, challenges the import of seven elephants to San Diego and four to Lowry Park.

The 10 to 12 year old elephants are protected by both the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The imports would mark the first time in over a decade that African elephants will be removed from the wild and sold to U.S. zoos for exhibition.

The zoos want the young elephants for U.S. captive breeding programs that will ensure a future supply of elephants - particularly baby elephants, who are extremely popular with zoo visitors - for public exhibition, the coalition says. These captive bred elephants are not intended for reintroduction into the wild. While the San Diego Zoo is paying the modest sum of $85,000 for seven elephants, and the Lowry Zoo is paying $48,000 for four, this is an enormous amount of money in Swaziland.

The coalition - which includes Born Free USA, the Born Free Foundation, The Elephant Alliance, the Elephant Sanctuary, In Defense of Animals, Animal Protection Institute, Animal Welfare Institute and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - also notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of its intent to challenge the agency's decision to issue the permits that allow the zoos to import the elephants.

The groups have given the service until April 2 to respond, before taking legal action to stop the import.

The San Diego Zoo said when it received the permits last September that Swaziland's big game reserves, much like the rest of Africa's national parks, are at their holding capacity for elephants. "Because of this, the elephant group was selected by the government of Swaziland for culling. If the Wild Animal Park does not import them, these pachyderms face death."

The coalition is concerned about the zoos' contention that the elephants will be killed if the import is not permitted. The coalition has provided both the zoos and the Fish and Wildlife Service with a signed letter from a Kwazulu-Natal reserve in Africa that is willing to accept all 11 elephants, demonstrating that there is no basis for the zoos' claim that they are rescuing these elephants from certain death.

The San Diego Zoo claims that these African elephants come from a managed facility, the Mkhaya Game Reserve. But the coalition calls that statement a "misrepresentation." The environmental groups say that the elephants who were captured for the import actually come from the 74,000 acre Hlane National Park, which is adjacent to the Mkhaya Game Reserve in Swaziland, but has not asserted any need to cull elephants.

In fact, the coalition says, there are only about 40 elephants in all of Swaziland.

"This illegal action would set a terrible precedent by creating a new international market in wild elephants for zoos and circuses," said Florence Lambert, of the Elephant Alliance.

Suzanne Roy of In Defense of Animals added, "Rather than promoting conservation, these zoos are encouraging African nations to sell elephants for profit rather than safeguard threatened wildlife. This promotes the elephant trade and undermines efforts to preserve African elephants in their range countries."

But the San Diego Zoo says the world's largest terrestrial mammal "faces a dire future" without the help of conservation organizations like itself. Elephants in U.S. zoos may disappear in 20 to 50 years.

According to the North American region African elephant studbook - a birth record of all captive specimens of that species - the North American African elephant population is no longer self sustaining and has nearly reached a reproductive standstill. Without new genes from elephants coming directly from Africa, the aging North American elephant population will no longer be able to procreate, the zoo says.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2003. All Rights Reserved.