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Her Lineage
Rose-Tu's grandmother, Rosy, was the first Asian elephant at the Oregon Zoo.
In 1953, when Rosy was just 4 years old, the King of Thailand presented her as a gift to U.S. official Arthur Flegel, of Portland. Flegel then donated her to the City of Portland, which had no money to pay her transportation costs from Thailand.
A campaign was launched among schoolchildren, who donated nickels and dimes to bring Rosy overseas. She was so popular with the public that voters later passed a levy to rebuild the zoo.
In 1962, six months after her herd-mate Belle had given birth to Packy - the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in more than 40 years - Rosy gave birth to Me-Tu. The sire of both calves was Thonglaw, who had been born in the wild in Cambodia in 1947.
Me-Tu spent her entire life at the Oregon Zoo, except for 16 months in Los Angeles on a breeding loan. She gave birth to six calves at the zoo, including Rose-Tu. She died in 1996 when the calf was 17 months old.
Rose-Tu's father, Hugo, was acquired from Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1983. He sired four calves before dying unexpectedly in 2003. He was the zoo's oldest bull elephant at the time.
Keepers described him as highly intelligent, just like Rose-Tu.
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