Oklahoma City Zoo in United States

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Oklahoma City Zoo
Typezoo
Founded1904
First elephant arrived1930
Address 2101 NE 50th Street
Zip-code 73111-7199
Place Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Country United States
Website Website
Related persons
Owner
Zoological department
Directors-Curators 1973-1975: Niels Bolwig
(curator)
Animal trainers
1953-1954: George "Slim" Lewis
Elephant department
Elephant managementProtected Contact, since
Elephant keepers
: Nick Newby
Record history
History of updates2025-03-17:
Latest document update2025-03-17 19:20:12
Google map
Description

Oklahoma City Zoo, zoo located at 2101 NE 50th Street, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States , was founded in 1904 and the first elephant arrived in 1930

Oklahoma City Zoo elephants are managed in Protected Contact, since .

Living elephants

At the Oklahoma City Zoo lives 8 elephants with records in this database: (detail list)
  1. ♀ Achara born 2014-12-22
  2. ♀ Asha born 1995-02-02
  3. ♂ Bowie born 2013-08-05
  4. ♀ Chandra born 1996-07-02
  5. ♀ Kai born 2018-10-09
  6. ♂ Kandula born 2001-11-25
  7. ♀ Rama born 2022-01-20
  8. ♂ Xerxes born 2025-06-17

Comments / picturesThe Oklahoma City Zoo began when a single deer was donated to a neighborhood park. Because deer were rare in 1902, crowds flocked to see the creature. Soon other people in Oklahoma Territory began donating native animals such as bears, golden eagles, and wolves. By 1903, the little menagerie became known as Wheeler Park Zoo, the first zoo in the Southwest. During its next 50 years, the zoo endured flooding, relocation, and tough economic slumps brought on by wars and the Dust Bowl. The zoo survived, however, because it provided a fun, relaxing place where people could go to escape from daily life. The community, in turn, rallied to help the zoo by donating precious pocket change to buy food and purchase new animals. Children, especially, were responsible for bringing some of the zoo’s most memorable animals to Oklahoma City, especially Judy the Elephant acquired through "Children\'s Pennies for a New Elephant" campaign.

At the time of her death, 49 year old Tanzy was the second oldest African elephant in North America. She had a history of aggression with the Abilene Zoo\' s other elephant Tanya. Tanzy had been transferred to the zoo in Texas from Oklahoma City be a companion animal for Tanya, two months before the Oklahoma City Zoo purchased half sisters Asha and Chandra from the Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri. Tanya was kept as a single elephant after Connie was relocated to the Springfield zoo as part of a building breeding program. Two months after Tanzy\'s death, Tanya was transferred to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas, to replace Zoe. In October 2007, Zoe was transferred to the Kansas City Zoo under breeding loan arrangements, a Missouri zoo which held the largest Herd of African elephants within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

References for records about Oklahoma City Zoo

Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan (2026). Oklahoma City Zoo, Elephant Encyclopedia. Available online at https://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=77. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:



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