Tulsa Zoo Making Progress On New Elephant Preserve, Adding 10 Acres To Exhibit

The Tulsa Zoo is making progress on its new Oxley Family Elephant Experience and Elephant Preserve.

Curator of Mammals, Jordan Piha, said the new 36,000-square-foot elephant barn should be complete in October or November. He said it will be the new home for the elephants, replacing aging infrastructure to give them better lives.

"We are coming up on 100 years old here pretty soon. A lot of it is infrastructure, but a lot of it is keeping up with modern zoo practices," Piha continued saying, "We want to be taking care of the animals, and we want to give them the best homes possible so that we can share them with the people of Tulsa and the surrounding area."

The project broke ground on June 22, 2022, to expand and improve the indoor and outdoor spaces for the zoo's Asian elephant herd. Nearly a year later, the exterior walls of the new elephant preserve barn are up, doors are going in, a boardwalk for guests to see into the enclosure has been installed, and crews will soon start work on the interior containment areas.

Piha said they are also adding a 10-acre yard for the elephants to roam freely. He says the improvements will allow for a better guest experience because zoo-goers will get to see the elephants in a more natural habitat.

"The 10-acre yard that is behind the building is going to give them the chance to move around through the trees, move around a couple streams, and some ponds out there," Piha added. "So, elephants playing around out there, playing with each other, and seeing how we care for them is all going to be on display here for the guests."

Once the barn is finished and the elephants move in, he said work to renovate the old facility will begin.

The project will cost around $32.8 million, mostly coming from donations.