Two female Asian elephants have a new home in Tampa, and their arrival is a quiet rebuke to the activist groups who insist zoos have no business keeping these animals at all.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced this week that Schottzie, 50, and Jati, 39, have moved into the park as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan, a coordinated breeding and conservation program run by accredited zoos nationwide. The two elephants were transported from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio, with the Florida Highway Patrol helping escort them safely to their new enclosure.

“These elephants come to us at AZA’s SSP recommendation. The recommendation comes to us as part of a greater plan,” a Busch Gardens spokesperson said in a video posted to social media.

The spokesperson explained that facilities within the AZA network work together — some breed animals, while others, like Busch Gardens, house them to support breeding groups elsewhere. Staff is already caring for the two new arrivals, and the park says guests will be able to meet them “in the coming weeks” once they make their public debut. Visitors will also get information about the broader conservation mission behind the move.

It’s a mission worth noting, given how often that mission gets buried under activist talking points. Groups like In Defense of Animals have spent months campaigning against Busch Gardens’ elephant program, framing accredited zoos as adversaries of animal welfare rather than partners in it. What that narrative often leaves out is the actual track record: AZA-accredited institutions operate under rigorous, third-party-audited welfare standards, and Busch Gardens holds the Humane Certified seal from American Humane—a distinction fewer than two dozen U.S. facilities can claim. Asian elephants are endangered in the wild, with roughly 35,000 remaining amid shrinking habitat, and the SSP exists specifically to maintain genetically healthy populations as a hedge against extinction.

None of that fits the simpler story that private facilities exploit animals for profit. The more complete picture is that a privately run Tampa theme park is doing the unglamorous work of species preservation without a government mandate forcing it to, funded by ticket sales rather than taxpayer dollars — the kind of voluntary, market-supported conservation that tends to get less credit than it deserves.

Schottzie and Jati join Busch Gardens’ existing herd in the park’s Nairobi section, where the elephants will be part of daily care, training and public education efforts once their debut is complete.

Follow the St. Pete-Clearwater Sun on Facebook, Google, & X

St. Pete-Clearwater Sun: local St. Pete-Clearwater & Tampa Bay, FL news at PIE-Sun.com