100% Funded
- Project Timeline: Broke ground June 22, 2022; Elephant Preserve Barn opened spring 2024; The Mary K. and John T. Oxley Family Elephant Experience opened spring 2025
- Architects: Selser Schaefer Architects and WDM Architects
- Construction Management Services: Nabholz Corporation
Tulsa Zoo has a successful history of exhibiting and caring for Asian elephants. Driven by our commitment to the species and the individual animals in our care, we developed a plan for expansion and improvements to support a larger, multi-generational Asian elephant herd. Our plans are driven in part by an elephant welfare study and evolving husbandry standards, as well as our desire to care for larger and more varied social groupings.
The zoo broke ground on The Mary K. and John T. Oxley Family Elephant Experience and Elephant Preserve on June 22, 2022. This reimagined habitat is among the largest of its kind in North America and was designed for elephants at all stages of life — a true visionary project our community deserves.
Funded through Vision Tulsa and private funds, this project:
- Updates the existing outdoor exhibit areas and barn
- Adds a 36,650 square-foot elephant barn
- Adds 10 acres for elephants to roam freely
- Gives us the ability to house multiple male elephants
- Adds privacy yards for new mothers and calves, as well as geriatric animals
- Adds guest amenities
Thank you to the Citizens of Tulsa for Vision Tulsa funding and to the following project partners:
Oxley Family Foundation | Zink Family Foundation | William S. Smith Charitable Trust | ONEOK |Betty Pirnat
Steve and Christine Cummings | Founders of Doctor’s Hospitals
