Lowry Park Zoo in United States


Lowry Park Zoo
Typezoo
Owner
Place Tampa, Florida
Country United States
Website Website
Directors
Key People
Veterinarians
Elephant department
Elephant managementProtected Contact, since
Head keepers
of elephants		 2007: Brian French
(elephant head-keeper)
Elephant keepers -1993: Charlotte Torre (elephant keeper)
Record history
History of updates2025-03-17:
Latest document update2025-03-17 19:15:11
Google map
Description

Lowry Park Zoo, in Tampa, Florida, United States

Lowry Park Zoo elephants are managed in Protected Contact, since

.

Living elephants

At the Lowry Park Zoo lives 6 elephants with records in this database: (detail list)
  1. ♀ Ellie born 1982
  2. ♀ Matjeka born 1991
  3. ♀ Mavi born 2013-07-29
  4. ♀ Mbali born 1989
  5. ⚪ Mpumi (Mpumelelo) born 2012-12-23
  6. ♂ Sdudla born 1990

Casualties

1 casualties
  1. 1993-07-10: elephant keeper Charlotte Torre fatal attack by Tilly. First she knocked Torre to the ground with her trunk. Then she kicked the fallen woman with the full force of her 9,500 pounds. † Charlotte Torre Died 1993-07-10, Lowry Park Zoo.

Comments / picturesLowry Park has a 5.6 acre safari park exhibit with 250,000 gallon watering hole. The new exhibit opened May 2004.

Eleven elephants were imported from Mkhaya Game Reserve, one of the two protected areas for elephants in Swaziland. The San Diego Zoological Society and Lowry Park Zoo collaborated on the project to capture and import the eleven wild born elephants for a total sum of one million rand, or approximately US$132,000 ($12,000 per specimen). San Diego received 1.6 elephants and Lowry Park received 2.2, transported over the ocean by a 747 jet. The elephants were all named by Swazi game park rangers in the siSwati language.
Lowry Park\'s four elephants included the two bulls Msholo (pronounced um-show-lo, meaning “the one who appears from nowhere") and Sdudla (stood-luh, translating to “stout or sturdy.”) The two cows were Matjeka (muh-chay-guh, meaning “skewed tusks) and Mbali (um-bahl-ee, translating to “pretty flower.”)
Before the arrival of the four in August 2003, Lowry Park Zoo acquired Ellie, an older cow from the Knoxville Zoo to help the new Herd acclimate in their new surroundings. In October 2005, she gave birth to the first elephant in the Floridia zoo\'s history, impregnated via Artificial insemination by a bull from another Florida facility. Three months later in January 2006, Sdudla, was transferred to the Montgomery Zoo to start a third breeding program from the 2003 original imports. There he sired the first two elephant births in the Alabama zoo\'s history, a female calf born in November 2007 and a stillborn calf in August 2008 which killed the mother. In October 2009, Lowry Park Zoo sent their remaining bull Msholo to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to create a second breeding Group at the institution.

Contradictory Records:
The North American Region Studbook for the African Elephant states the 2003 San Diego/Lowry Park imports were born at Kruger National Park and were brought to America from Hlane Royal National Park, the other of the two protected areas for elephants in Swaziland.

References for records about Lowry Park Zoo

Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan (2025). Lowry Park Zoo, Elephant Encyclopedia. Available online at https://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=390. (archived at the Wayback machine)

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Lowry Park Zoo is mentioned on Elephant News:

DateLinks which opens in new window
2013-01-09Baby elephant born at lowry park zoo to mother mbali - Elephant News
Attorney, plaintiffs in circus trial argued that elephants are better off dead than in captivity. same animal activists now claim to be interested in elephants’ welfare - Elephant News
Female elephant calf in montgomery zoo officially named - Elephant News
Female elephant calf born at montgomery zoo - Elephant News
Newborn elephant exciting arrival for montgomery zoo - Elephant News
National zoo's only giraffe leaves for florida - Elephant News


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