Zoo's Elephants Soon Heading West

PHILADELPHIA - Their trunks are packed and they're headed west.

Kallie and Bette, the Philadelphia Zoo's two female African elephants, are moving to southern Pennsylvania.

They'll join Jackson, a male African elephant, at the Pittsburgh Zoo's center for rare and endangered species.

The zoos say the pachyderms will be trucked to their new quarters in a specially-equipped trailer after the July 4 weekend.

The Pittsburgh Zoo's 724-acre International Conservation Center is a new preservation and education facility in Somerset County with the African elephant as its primary focus.

The Philadelphia Zoo announced plans in 2006 to relocate its elephants because there was insufficient funding to build a new habitat for them in Philadelphia.