L.A. Zoo to get two elephants from San Diego

The female Asian elephants, called Tina and Jewel, are coming on open-ended loan from the San Diego Zoo. They have been rehabbing at San Diego for 14 months "since being removed from a Texas location where the owner used them as circus performers," says Tony Perry in the L.A. Times. They will help stock the Los Angeles Zoo's $42-million Elephants of Asia exhibit scheduled to open in mid-December.

Several elephant keepers from San Diego, including Andrews, will work with the Los Angeles Zoo to ensure a continuity of care for the two -- including the "protected contact system" in which the animals are never struck and keepers keep a safe distance, usually behind a metal fence.

Elephants and their care have been a cause of political discord and litigation in Los Angeles, where the zoo, in effect, is run as a city department, with oversight by elected officials. In San Diego, the zoo is a private nonprofit organization that leases city-owned land in Balboa Park and has its own board of directors.

For security reasons, the date of the move is not being revealed. Jewel and Tina will join a male elephant named Billy at the Los Angeles Zoo.