The United States Fish and Wildlife Service last month approved the transfer of the 18 African elephants from Swaziland to three destinations: the Dallas Zoo; the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas; and the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha. A statement from the wildlife service said the animals were threatened by habitat destruction and drought in Swaziland — and were scheduled to be culled.
The three zoos have formed a partnership to import the animals, saying that dozens of elephants are confined to fenced enclosures in two privately managed parks in Swaziland, a small, landlocked country bordering South Africa and Mozambique. The zoos said they had not bought the animals but instead would donate money to the country’s rhino-conservation efforts.
The wildlife service approved the permit, saying in a statement on Jan. 21 that several conditions had been met to import of the elephants, including: the move would not be detrimental to them; they would be suitably cared for; and they would not be used for primarily commercial purposes.
Conservationists and rights groups, however, have criticized the pending move, saying that wild elephants often suffer health problems in zoos and that the relocation had no conservation value, according to The Associated Press.
“It’s condemning these wild animals — sentient wild animals — to life imprisonment,” said Francis Garrard, the director of the Conservation Action Trust in South Africa, according to the A.P.
Last year, animal rights groups, including PETA, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Performing Animal Welfare Society, wrote to the wildlife service objecting to the zoos’ application to import the elephants. The groups cited the stress from captivity, transport and splitting up elephant families and said that the zoos were not suitably equipped to house them.
The wildlife service’s associate director, Robert Dreher, told the A.P. during a trip to South Africa on Saturday that he recognized the “humanitarian concerns” of opponents of the elephants’ trip. But he said that it did not threaten conservation of the species, which is being heavily poached, and that zoos educated the public about wildlife.
It is not the first time that animal and elephant welfare groups tried to block the importation of elephants from Swaziland. In 2003, officials at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla., wanted to import 11 orphaned elephants, saying that it would prevent them from being killed, but the plan drew opposition.
Swaziland’s elephants were wiped out decades ago, but they were reintroduced into the country between 1987 and 1994, and kept in fenced areas in the country, which is about the size of Connecticut. There, protected from poachers, their numbers continued to grow, but the elephants had a destructive impact on their enclosed habitats, and that has been made worse by drought, the wildlife service said.
In 2014, 39 elephants lived in 23 square miles of habitat, the wildlife service said.
A report from the Dallas Zoo said the Swaziland park managers supplied the elephants with water and hay. It said the elephants were being imported into the United States “to prevent further degradation of the landscape and in order to make room for critically endangered rhinos. If the elephants are not relocated, they will be culled.”
Gregg Hudson, the president of the Dallas Zoo, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the zoo partnership had not paid for the animals but that it was contributing $450,000 over five years to a wildlife conservation trust in Swaziland for rhinos.
He said the 18 elephants were still in Swaziland as logistics and medical assessments were being completed. It was not immediately clear when they would start their trip to the United States, which they will make in a 747 airplane, he said.
Once in the United States, the group would likely be split up and distributed to the three zoos. Mr. Hudson said they were attempting to preserve existing social and family links among the animals, which include 15 female elephants and three male elephants ranging in age from about six years to the early 20s.
The elephants that end up in Dallas will be housed in the zoo’s Giants of the Savannah enclosure, which is six acres. There are already four elephants there, he said.
In Omaha, a $73 million, 28-acre African Grasslands project is under construction, which will include elephants, a statement on the zoo’s website said. The zoo was closed on Tuesday, and there was no immediate comment on the elephants’ prospective housing.
At the zoo in Kansas, the elephants will live on five acres outdoors and in an 18,000-square-foot indoor space, built to accommodate a herd of up to nine elephants. They will join one female elephant at the zoo, a spokeswoman, Melissa Graham, said in an email.
“The plan to move them to the United States is a pragmatic and humane solution to help balance this environment and provide a home to elephants that need one, while at the same time expands a critically needed rhino conservation program,” Ms. Graham said.