Goodbye, elephants : (

"Shortly, the Calgary Zoo is moving its three female Asian elephants — Kamala, Swarna and Maharani — to the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C.. The lone male Asian elephant, Spike, was relocated to a Florida Zoo last fall. (Note: not sure which adult female elephant is in my old photo, but the baby was baby Malti, who very sadly died). They will be reunited with a couple of elephants that two of them lived with at an orphanage in Sri Lanka more than 30 years ago. Donald Moore, an official with Smithsonian's, says they'll be studying them to see if the elephants remember each other and how they'll react.

"We think they'll remember each other, and we are in conversation about how to study that along with some university researchers in psychology and communications," he said. "So it's going to be a very exciting time for these elephants in Washington, D.C."

Zoo officials said they did an extensive international search and this accredited facility met their stringent criteria to take care of the three female elephants.

Listen to an interview with Calgary Zoo curator Colleen Baird about the move:

www.cbc.ca/1.1323590

The move was made in the best interest of the animals and not because of recent flood damage (i.e. June 2013) to the zoo, according to officials. The decision to move the animals was made last April, before the floods, because the island that houses the zoo cannot accommodate a large herd, and elephant welfare is better served by being part of a larger social group."