OKC Zoo rewards Cristo Rey for changing mascot to African elephant

In early 2022, the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden launched the School Mascot Challenge for all schools, elementary to high school, statewide. For any Oklahoma school that officially and permanently changed its current school mascot to any real, non-mythical animal or insect, the OKC Zoo would award every student, teacher and school employee with two (2) general admission tickets to the OKC Zoo.

On April 7, 2023, the OKC Zoo welcomed students and staff of Cristo Rey Oklahoma City Catholic High School, the private high school which combines intensive college preparatory academics with continuous professional work experience, to a special elephant presentation where their new school mascot, Royal, an African elephant was unveiled.

“Cristo Rey has referred to ourselves as ‘the royals’ but we didn’t have an actual mascot until this year” said Kelsey Herman, Crito Rey principal. “The students voted for a mascot this year and overwhelmingly selected the elephant which we think is a brilliant embodiment of our students’ strength, tenacity and overall awesomeness.”

The new mascot was revealed in a most unusual way – during one of the OKC Zoo’s elephant presentations – on a large mural constructed of cardboard boxes and tempura paint which one of the Zoo’s Asian elephants promptly destroyed and devoured. The consumption of this mascot display is a safe and nontoxic enrichment experience for the Zoo’s elephants.

In 2022, the OKC Zoo discovered that of 475 Oklahoma high schools, 284 schools or 60% have an animal for a mascot. Of those 284 animal mascots, 96 (34%) are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered species. Oklahoma’s most popular high school mascot (45 schools), the tiger, is classified as critically endangered. All of these classifications indicate a shrinking population in the wild due to a wide range of causes including habitat loss and poaching.

“As playful as this mascot challenge may seem, our intention has been serious,” said Dr. Rebecca Snyder, OKC Zoo’s senior director of conservation, education and science. “We’re thrilled that the students of Cristo Rey not only accepted the mascot challenge but that they selected an iconic African Elephant as their mascot.”

The African elephant, Loxodonta Africana, is known for their intelligence, strength, curiosity and, unfortunately, is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. An IUCN African Elephants Status Report from 2016 estimated the population of African elephants (both African forest elephants and African savanna elephants) in Africa to be around 415,000. The number of African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years, while the population of African savanna elephants decreased by at least 60% over the last 50 years, according to the assessments. The population of African elephants continue to be challenged by the loss of habitat as well as poaching.