Ruby Is Back in Preferred Setting at the L.A. Zoo

After a 38-hour cross-country road trip -- much of it spent flicking hay to search for hidden apple slices -- Ruby the elephant was back at the Los Angeles Zoo on Sunday, still covered in the red clay she had painted on herself in Tennessee.

“She’s in good spirits and we’re glad to have her back,” said Mayor James K. Hahn, as he stood in front of a 4,000-square-foot enclosure behind the public part of the zoo.

The move was the latest in a series for Ruby, a 43-year-old African elephant and former circus performer who became the focus of some animal rights activists when the L.A. Zoo moved her from her home of 19 years to the Knoxville Zoo in May 2003. Zoo officials here made the loan because they hoped Ruby, who has had a calf, would serve as a role model in Knoxville for younger African elephants trying to breed and raise calves. Also, the L.A. Zoo had decided to focus on Asian elephants.

But Ruby was not the same in Knoxville. Though she flirted with the male elephant there, L.A. Zoo officials said she was uncharacteristically aggressive, pushing other female elephants to try to assert her dominance. In July, officials announced she’d return.

Animal rights activists had protested the move to Knoxville, saying that Ruby should not have been separated from her friend Gita, an Asian elephant. The two had spent 16 years together in Los Angeles.

On Sunday, some activists said they were not satisfied with Ruby’s return, holding signs with messages such as, “Zoo elephants are prisoners for life.”

“They could’ve sent her to a sanctuary four hours away from Knoxville,” said Bill Dyer, of In Defense of Animals. “Ideally, Ruby and Gita could go to a sanctuary together.”

L.A. Zoo Director John Lewis said Ruby would probably not go to a sanctuary because, he believes, her needs can be taken care of at the zoo.

“Ruby is a healthy animal,” he said. “Sanctuaries need to be saved for animals who have no options.”

But her latest move may not be her last. Lewis said he would prefer to send Ruby to a zoo with a “compatible herd of African elephants.” He said the L.A. Zoo planned “to keep her here for now.” He did not know when the public would see Ruby again.

Ruby has lost about 500 pounds since she left last year, but Lewis said that was because the Knoxville Zoo was trying to slim her down.

By midday Sunday, the trimmer Ruby, now 8,600 pounds, had already reacquainted herself with Tara, another African elephant at the L.A. Zoo. Across the fence that separated their adjacent pens, the two elephants had touched trunks and probably exchanged some subsonic greetings, Lewis said.

Gita, who spent Sunday at the public elephant area, and Ruby could be reintroduced at the end of a 30-day period of quarantine and observation, Lewis said. He said he expected the two elephants would probably “trumpet each other” in recognition.

Lewis acknowledged that Ruby and Gita are compatible but said, “we disagree that they were bonded to the exclusion of other animals.”

Ruby returned to Los Angeles around midnight in a tractor-trailer specially designed for moving animals. It was kept at a balmy 68 to 74 degrees, said Chris Danhauer, who owns Planned Migration, a transportation company that trucks about 60 to 70 animals a year across the country. Three L.A. Zoo staff members followed in a chase car.

Zookeepers in Knoxville packed Ruby a hefty snack for the road: 1,200 pounds of hay and about 30 pounds of bananas, apples and other produce, and her drivers stopped regularly to offer her water or food and clean out waste. Danhauer said he tries not to attract attention when he’s driving zoo animals because he does not want people tapping on doors or scaring the animals. But he said it was hard to go completely unnoticed at truck stops along the way.

“Sometimes we’d go to check her water,” Danhauer said with a laugh, “and people would notice a big trunk coming out of the side door.”