Event Details
Date: Saturday, August 15
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
What’s Happening
Spend the day celebrating our Asian elephants with activities for all ages, including:
- Meet the Keeper Chats sponsored by CenterPoint Energy Foundation at 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 1:00 p.m.
- Special elephant enrichment
- Elephant-themed activities
- Make-your-own seed balls at Wildlife Workshop
This event is free and is included in your daily admission tickets. This event is free for Houston Zoo members.
Meet the Herd
Several Asian elephants call Houston Zoo’s McNair Elephant Habitat home, spanning generations. Get to meet Thai, the oldest male Asian elephant in North America, along with Methai, Tess, Shanti, Chuck, Tupelo, Joy, Tilly, Winnie, Teddy, and Kirby, our youngest female calf born in November 2024.
Asian elephants are endangered in the wild. Houston Zoo supports a Malaysian elephant conservation team, led by our Elephant Conservation Associate Dr. Farina Othman, with satellite collars and behavior research that helps protect wild elephants in Borneo. Your visit helps fund that work.
How You Can Help
Be a hero and visit the Houston Zoo! Your admission ticket and memberships are helping the Zoo plant trees to reforest habitat and help to protect elephants in Borneo. Donate now to help save elephants in the wild.
Get to Know Our Asian Elephants
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The trunk has no bone or cartilage
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Elephants have surprisingly poor eyesight
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An elephant can smell water 12 miles away
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They can hear sounds humans can't
It’s made up almost entirely of muscle, about 150,000 individual muscle units in total. Two nostrils run its full length for breathing. Their trunk tips are also extremely sensitive. Fine hairs at the tip of the trunk make it highly attuned to touch. Elephants often touch each other with their trunks to stay connected as a herd.
Their eyes are small, and they can only see clearly up to about 30 feet.
Their sense of smell is excellent, and it plays a large role in their social life and in detecting predators.
Their hearing picks up frequencies well below the range of human hearing, which helps them communicate over long distances, up to a mile away.
Bring Home Your Favorite Elephant from the Zoo Store
Keep your elephant adventure going long after your Zoo visit. Shop elephant-inspired favorites, including cuddly plush, T-shirts, books and more at the Houston Zoo Store.
Looking for gifts?
Head to the Zoo Store to shop for other merchandise and souvenirs to take home from your Zoo trip.
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