Victoria, Zambezi and Starlet, don't pack those trunks just yet. You're not leaving as originally planned to mate up with some handsome bull.

Instead, you'll be treated Tuesday to a pachyderm pile of produce to celebrate two decades' worth of heavyweight entertainment at Zoo Atlanta.

(ENLARGE)

Zoo Atlanta's large mammal keeper, Jeremy Kirby, waters down African elephant Victoria in August. Tuesday marks the 20-year anniversary of the day that Victoria and Zoo Atlanta's other African elephants, Zambezi and Starlet, came together.

That's right, 20 years. Tuesday marks the 20-year anniversary of the day the three African elephants came together at the zoo. With luck, they'll stay here years longer, said Susan Elliott, the zoo's spokeswoman.

"We're real happy we'll be able to keep them," she said. "This is good news for us."

Not as good news, perhaps, for the elephants, each about 24 years old. They were bound early next year for the North Carolina Zoo for a date with C'sar, the zoo's big bull. Or, if that didn't work, they might have been artificially inseminated to help create a larger herd of Loxodonta africana born in this country.

Those plans changed a few weeks ago when officials at the Asheboro, N.C., facility decided to go after some younger females.

After studying the three Zoo Atlanta elephants, specialists decided not all of them were good candidates for breeding, said Rod Hackney, a spokesman for the N.C. Zoo. Studies indicate that captive female elephants at that age do not breed as easily as younger cows. Elephants can live to 60 or longer.

Rather than break apart the group, they decided to leave the Atlanta trio intact and keep looking for Ms. Right(s). They notified Zoo Atlanta officials that the date was off.

That was fine with Adam Stone, assistant curator of large mammals at the Atlanta zoo. The zoo would have accepted two other elephants from Florida, but Stone likes the girls he's got here.

"They've closely bonded," he said, "They've been together 20 years."

They were born in the wild — Starlet in South Africa, Zambezi and Victoria at a national park in Central Africa. Starlet came to Atlanta in March 1986, a squeaker who had yet to grow into her ears. On Nov. 14, 1986, youngsters Zambezi and Victoria — purchased, in part, by the donations of school children — joined Starlet.

Tuesday afternoon, the zoo plans a celebration of elephantine proportions for the three — with some condolences tossed in, perhaps.

C'sar, according to all reports, is one fine-looking fellow.