Oregon zoo says baby elephant won't be leaving

Nov. 30, 2012: Photo provided by the Oregon Zoo shows a newborn female Asian elephant calf in the elephant maternity ward with her mother Rose-Tu at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Ore. The Oregon Zoo says Rose-Tu gave birth to the 300-pound female calf at 2:17 a.m. Friday, and the youngster is healthy, vigorous and loud. (AP/Oregon Zoo 2012)

Nov. 30, 2012: Photo provided by the Oregon Zoo shows a newborn female Asian elephant calf just moments after birth at the Oregon Zoo. The Oregon Zoo says their Asian elephant Rose-Tu gave birth to the 300-pound female calf at 2:17 a.m. Friday, and the youngster is healthy, vigorous and loud. (AP/Oregon Zoo 2012)

PORTLAND, Ore. – An Oregon zoo says it will retain possession of the country's newest baby elephant, a 300-pound female that hasn't yet been named, even though it won't own the animal.

A breeding contract gives ownership of the calf born Friday in Portland to a California for-profit elephant rental company, Have Trunk Will Travel. But the zoo said the elephant will live out her life within its walls.

"It was never in question for this calf," Oregon Zoo director Kim Smith said. "(She) was always going to live here."

The elephant is the second baby for Rose-Tu, a female that has spent her life in a zoo after being born into captivity, and Tusko, a male that is on long-term loan to the Oregon Zoo from Have Trunk Will Travel. A 2005 contract between the company and the zoo says the company takes ownership of the pair's second, fourth and sixth offspring after 30 days.

But Smith said Have Trunk Will Travel expressed no interest in taking the calf during negotiations with the zoo that started before the animal was born. The company didn't respond to repeated calls and emails Tuesday from The Associated Press.

Have Trunk Will Travel co-owner Kari Johnson told The Seattle Times, "I can't wait to hug her."

The newspaper on Monday night reported the details of the contract, the substance of which was mentioned in a 2011 story in The Oregonian.

Under the agreement, the zoo kept Rose-Tu's first calf, a male born in 2008 named Samudra. He pulled in record-breaking attendance in his first month on public view.

But zoo ownership contracts differ from typical contracts that define ownership, Association of Zoos and Aquariums spokesman Steven Feldman said. While ownership agreements are in place, the parties involved usually defer to the organization that can best care for the animal.

Both the Oregon Zoo and Have Trunk Will Travel are association members.

"It is a rather remarkable and unique system that you don't find in other lines of work," Feldman said. "That's just how it works."

Feldman said most koalas in the U.S., for instance, are owned by the San Diego Zoo, which loans them out to other zoos or organizations with several stipulations, including that the koalas get fresh eucalyptus. It's part of their "Species Survival Plan," something drawn up by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for 303 species.

Standards issued by the association range from the amount of shade and drinking water that should be made available to Asian elephants, to pad and nail trimming.

Five names for the calf were proposed by the zoo. The calf will be named in an online vote. Samudra and the new calf are the nation's first third-generation offspring born into captivity.