Asian elephants Asha and Chandra have returned to the Oklahoma City Zoo after more than 2 years in Tulsa.
The sisters returned Monday to Oklahoma City after riding in a special climate-controlled truck.
"They're back in town," Oklahoma City Zoo spokeswoman Tara Henson said. "They're doing great."
They are off exhibit to the public until this spring, when their new habitat will be finished. Their living quarters are complete, but the exhibit as a whole isn't done.
The elephants were sent to Tulsa in June 2008 to breed with male elephant Sneezy as part of a national elephant breeding plan.
Asha is pregnant and due to give birth in May. As of last month, Chandra wasn't pregnant. Zookeepers probably won't know if Chandra and Sneezy's last breeding attempt was successful until next week.
Officials at both zoos decided before the pair even left Oklahoma City that they would return together. The sisters have always lived together, so officials think it would be best for them psychologically to stay together.
The two are in their new habitat on the south side of the zoo. The new 3½ acre exhibit and massive elephant barn are about 10 times larger than their old yard and home. It's large enough to hold up to six adult elephants plus offspring.
Zoo officials decided to commit to an elephant breeding program in 2001, when architects working on the zoo's master plan asked staff members what they wanted, Executive Director Dwight Scott said. The consensus was a hallmark elephant exhibit with a globally important breeding program.
The habitat will be one of the five largest elephant exhibits in the country, zoo officials said. At $13 million, the exhibit is the largest project ever at the Oklahoma City Zoo
