COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Riverbanks Zoo says their last remaining elephant has a new home.
Belle will join her new herd mates, Brittany and Ruth, at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
That zoo recently opened a brand new, state-of-the-art elephant habitat -- Adventure Africa. The exhibit's 20,000 square foot indoor Elephant Care Center features a recreation room, individual stalls, and an expansive area for enrichment activities. There's also a nearly 2-acre outdoor yard with plenty of room to roam.
In June, it was announced that Belle and another elephant, Robin, would be leaving the zoo to find a new herd and to make room for a new rhino exhibit.
Robin passed away unexpectedly a week ago, however, so now it will just be Belle leaving.
Belle came to Riverbanks from Columbus Zoo in 2001. The move will her to live with a larger group in a more social environment. Despite her upcoming departure, the elephant could eventually return to Riverbanks.
Following Belle's departure, Riverbanks plans to re-introduce and breed Southern white rhinos at the Zoo—a species last seen at Riverbanks in 1989. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates less than 22,000 individuals remain in the wild most of which are found in the grasslands of southern Africa. Northern white rhinos are now extinct in the wild because of poaching.