Meet Emanti and Mac, Caldwell Zoo’s new African elephants

TYLER, TX (KLTV) - Caldwell Zoo is welcoming two new arrivals - a pair of 8-year-old African elephants.

Emanti and eMacembe “Mac” LaLu Hlata are half-brothers from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Born at the park in 2010, the relocation has been in the works for more than two years.

Elephant herds are matriarchal in the wild and are led by a female elephant, a Caldwell Zoo news release notes.

“Mothers typically push males out of the herd at this stage in their lives. In the case of Emanti and Mac, the Safari Park’s female elephants had begun to show less tolerance for the boys so it was time to relocate them to a new home where they could grow and thrive,” the release states.

They’ll have a new herd leader in Tonya, the zoo’s resident matriarch elephant.

The brothers are now adjusting to their new environment and arrived healthy and fit, zoo staff says.

“We put in a lot of preparation for this opportunity. The elephant barn and the outside habitat were enlarged to be well beyond the suggested requirements," Scotty Stainback, Curator of Mammals at Caldwell Zoo, says.

The zoo is planning to formally announce the news Thursday at 10 a.m. at the zoo.

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