Denver Zoo welcomes 11,000-pound male elephant Groucho

Bodhi the elephant has a new buddy. The Denver Zoo has welcomed its second male elephant, a 41-year-old named Groucho who came from the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas to live in the Denver Zoo's new mega-exhibit, Toyota Elephant Passage. He's a big boy: At 11,000 pounds, Groucho is now...

By Melanie Asmar

January 24, 2012

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Bodhi the elephant has a new buddy. The Denver Zoo has welcomed its second male elephant, a 41-year-old named Groucho who came from the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas to live in the Denver Zoo's new mega-exhibit, Toyota Elephant Passage. He's a big boy: At 11,000 pounds, Groucho is now the zoo's ~~fattest~~ ~~heaviest~~ ~~plumpest~~ most abundant resident.

Toyota Elephant Passage, which was rechristened after a $5.4 million donation from seven local Toyota dealerships, will be groundbreaking when it opens on June 1. As explained in our 2009 feature, "Trunk Show," it will be capable of housing up to twelve elephants, eight of which could be male. No other zoo in North America has the capacity to house that many bull elephants.

Look below to see photos of Groucho arriving in Denver.

More from our News archive: "Cranbeary the widowed Denver Zoo polar bear gets another chance at Thanksgiving romance." Like Melanie Asmar on Facebook!

Melanie Asmar is a staff writer for Westword. She joined the paper in 2009 and has won awards for her stories about education, immigration and epic legal battles. Got a tip? She'd love to hear it.

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