The elephants at the Oregon Zoo have moved into their new home!

PAE, in conjunction with SRG Partnership, helped to design the new Forest Hall, a 33,000 square-foot habitat designed to be 60% more energy efficient than a similar code building and provide a healthy, well ventilated indoor space for the resident elephants. Below is a brief update from Bob Lee, the Oregon Zoo’s Head Elephant Keeper, on the move. To learn more about this project click here.

“The transition has been going great so far. Tusko walked right over into the new building and has already started shifted through rooms. The cows went next, with Lily being the bravest of them all. She ran ahead of everyone to pick up treats and then would run back to the herd excitedly. Finally as Shine became more confident, she lead Rose and Lily into Forest Hall. Chendra stayed in the old East yard and was reluctant to go down the slight slope into the new habitat so we stopped feeding the herd in Forest Hall and they went back to see Chendra. We began calling the herd back to Forest Hall again and Chendra went along with Rose and Lily this time. Currently we have the herd in Forest Hall and Tusko in the barn… we will move Samudra into the corral area of Forest Hall where he can see and interact with the herd. We will probably start with Packy first thing in the morning.”