Zoo says baby elephant will stay in Portland, Ore.

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.

"Have Trunk Will Travel has no intention and has never had any intention of coming to take Rose-Tu's calf," company co-owner Kari Johnson said Tuesday in an email to The Associated Press. She added that her company "supports Oregon Zoo's vision for elephants and has great appreciation for the way they care for elephants."

Johnson added, "We could not be more excited about the birth of this new calf."

The Seattle Times 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.