HOMESICK PACHYDERM DUE IN L.A.

Byline: - Lisa M. Sodders

Ruby the elephant was due to arrive back in Los Angeles late Saturday after a 40-hour road trip from Tennessee, zoo officials said.

Ruby, a 43-year-old African elephant, was transferred to the Knoxville Zoo in May 2003 but never adjusted to her new surroundings.

Animal-rights activists maintained that Ruby's health was compromised because she missed Gita, her longtime Asian elephant companion at the Los Angeles Zoo, and had confined quarters in Knoxville.

Zoo Director John Lewis said Saturday that it will be some time before the public gets to see Ruby again. Following zoo protocol, Ruby will be put into quarantine for 30 days to make sure she's healthy, he said.

In July, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn ordered Ruby to be returned to the Griffith Park zoo. On Friday, staff from both zoos and Planned Migration, the animal transport company that brought Ruby to Knoxville, began the long trip back to Los Angeles.

``I'm feeling pretty happy,'' said Gretchen Wyler, vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, Hollywood Office in Encino, which backed a lawsuit to return Ruby to Los Angeles. ``It's the welfare of the animal, that's all we care about. Had she been happy there, we would have been happy, too.''

The zoo is currently building a new, one-acre elephant facility, and during the construction, Ruby and Tara, the zoo's other African elephant, will be kept in a smaller, 8,300-foot secondary pen. The zoo's two Asian elephants, Gita and Billy, will be on display. The new facility is being built around them, Lewis said.

``Gita will make visits'' to Ruby, Lewis said. ``(Gita) is our most friendly and easiest elephant, and it'll be up to the veterinarians how soon she can visit Ruby.''

The new exhibit is expected to be completed at the end of 2006.

Wyler said the zoo ought to make it possible for people to see the popular elephant once the quarantine is lifted.

How long Ruby will remain at the Los Angeles Zoo is still uncertain. Earlier this month, court papers revealed the zoo was considering sending Ruby to yet another zoo so that it could focus on its Asian elephant herd.