HOUSTON — The elephant herd at the Houston Zoo has gained 9,500 pounds thanks to its newest addition, Chuck!
Chuck was born July 15, 2008, at African Lion Safari in Ontario, Canada and most recently lived at the Denver Zoo.
In exchange, the Houston Zoo sent a 14-year-old elephant named Baylor to the Denver Zoo.
They were exchanged to father future herds.
The Houston Zoo said Chuck's arrival comes at the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Asian Elephant Species Survival Plan (SSP), which is a program that works to ensure a genetically diverse, demographically varied and biologically sound population.
Chuck spent six years at the Denver's Zoo all-male herd of Asian elephants. At the Houston Zoo, he will live at the McNair Asian Elephant habitat with Thailand, 58, Tucker, 19, and Nelson, 4.
Kristin Windle is the elephant supervisor at the Houston Zoo. Her love for the herd of pachyderms living in Hermann Park is clear.
"The first day I volunteered with the elephants and stood in front of one of these guys it was instant. I’ll never look back," she said.
Windle has known 14-year-old Baylor since he was one year old. She helped raise him and watched him grow into a teenager.
"Baylor is related to everyone here, so for him to one day be a part of a breeding herd. he can’t do that here," she said.
The permanent goodbye is bittersweet.
“Chuck is unrelated to everyone so he can breed with all of our females," she said.
At first, Chuck will be introduced to the female elephants slowly.
"It is like a dating app. We are going to introduce him to our females like that," Windle said.
Separated by cable fencing, Chuck will get to know some of the females first and they’ll get to find out about him, too.
“They can see and smell and touch each other but they’re not sharing the same space we can judge their behavior and see how they’re going to feel about each other," Windle said.
Chuck is known to be a social butterfly who enjoys being around other elephants. He occasionally gets the case of FOMO, when he thinks other elephants are leaving without him and begins to vocalize and kick his feet around, according to the Zoo.
He's also known to be a very high-energy, intelligent and affectionate elephant.
Chuck was driven to Texas from Colorado on an 18-wheeler, a trip of more than a thousand miles.
Elephants like Chuck are endangered, with less than 50,000 of them left on the planet. Tradeoffs like the one made between Houston and Denver ensure their survival for generations to come.
"Getting to send him off to help elephants as a whole, bringing an elephant in like Chuck, that’s the exciting part because we get to be a part of all of this and make sure this species is alive and thriving," Windle said.
The zoo said by visiting Chuck, guests are helping to save bull Asian elephants in the wild. A portion of each admission to the Houston Zoo goes to protecting an estimated 250 wild elephants in Asia.