Ruby Is Packing Trunk for Return to L.A. Zoo

Ruby wasn’t the same. She wasn’t making friends at her new home in Knoxville, Tenn., and seemed listless and a little angry.

And so, a year after being moved, the 43-year-old African elephant will be returned to the Los Angeles Zoo, city officials said Monday.

“Though the move of Ruby to the Knoxville Zoo was well-intentioned, it is clear that she has not fully assimilated to her surroundings and therefore should be returned to the Los Angeles Zoo,” Mayor James K. Hahn said.

Hahn sent a letter to the L.A. Zoo’s general manager asking for her return as soon as possible.

L.A. Zoo officials said Ruby probably would come home after the summer heat passed, although no decision had been made.

The move marks the latest event in a rethinking of elephant exhibits in zoos across the country. The San Francisco Zoo decided last month to retire two elephants to a sanctuary when their companions died. In May, the Detroit Zoo also decided to send its elephants to a sanctuary, because the director believed that the elephants shouldn’t live in small groups without many acres to roam.

Ruby spent 19 years in Los Angeles after the zoo bought her from a circus. In May 2003, she was lent to Knoxville to serve as a role model for younger African elephants trying to breed and raise calves (she has had one calf). Also, the L.A. Zoo had decided to focus on Asian elephants.

Calls for her return -- or for her retirement to a sprawling elephant sanctuary in Tennessee -- were renewed after KNBC-TV, Channel 4 news showed footage last week of Ruby standing by herself and swaying at the Knoxville Zoo.

In the footage, Ruby looks like “a desperate elephant,” said Gretchen Wyler, vice president of the Hollywood office of the Humane Society of the United States, who shot the video in June. This behavior, she said, contrasted with the playful tenderness Ruby exhibited with Gita, an Asian elephant and her friend for 16 years. Wyler also had shot video of the two elephants touching trunks and throwing hay on each other.

“All an elephant girl needs is a best friend, and she had it,” said Wyler, who cheered news of Ruby’s return.

“It’s called doing the right thing. She’ll be back at the L.A. Zoo where she’s happiest.”

The Humane Society has supported a lawsuit filed last year by a Los Angeles resident contending that Ruby, as city property, belonged to the taxpayers and asking for the elephant’s return.

Plaintiff Catherine Doyle of Los Angeles said she was pleased by the city’s action.

“I think all the activists and the people who cared about Ruby really pushed the zoo’s and the mayor’s hand,” she said.

But the case isn’t over until Ruby is back or the city has a plan to return her shortly, said Doyle’s lawyer, Paul Chan.

In Knoxville, officials acknowledged that Ruby had spent her 14 months there separated by a metal rail from the other elephants. When zookeepers tried to introduce her to an elephant named Jana, Ruby started pushing and shoving, said Director Jim Vlna.

“We realized that Ruby wanted to be in charge, so we backed off,” Vlna said. “It wasn’t a matter of Ruby getting hurt but the other elephant getting hurt.”

The zoo had to rethink Ruby’s integration plan.

“We can’t force the issue,” he said.

But Vlna said pushing or swaying didn’t necessarily mean that Ruby was unhappy or disliked the other elephants.

“Everybody’s going to interpret that reaction differently,” he said.

Elephants push each other around in the wild, he said. Swaying might stem from boredom, frustration or anticipation of going inside for the night.

Besides, Vlna said, Ruby had been eating well and flirting with the bull. “We have lots of other video of her interacting with other elephants and seeming pretty lively.”

The decision to bring Ruby back was based on her failure to make new friends, not concern that she pined for Gita, said L.A. Zoo General Manager John Lewis.

“Ruby and Gita’s relationship from the beginning was kind of overplayed,” he said. “Our goal was to incorporate her with a herd, not just send her to another location. When that was not going to happen, we decided to bring her back.”

When Ruby returns, the zoo will start her out like any new animal, Lewis said. She will be kept in an area separate from other elephants, including Gita, and will be slowly reintroduced.