Cher is gonna be pissed! The beloved L.A. Zoo elephants she went to bat for — Billy and Tina — had been secreted outta the zoo underneath the quilt of darkness final evening … TMZ has realized.

Sources related to the L.A. Zoo inform us Billy and Tina had been eliminated round 1:30 AM Tuesday and, presumably, loaded as much as be shipped to Tulsa Zoo — a controversial transfer that prompted protests, a lawsuit and an offended letter to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass … which Cher and several other different celebs signed.

We’re instructed the elephant exhibit at L.A. Zoo was empty Tuesday morning — no elephants, no keepers and the electrical perimeter fence was off … clear indications the animals had been on their technique to Oklahoma.

Our sources say the elephants had been put into crates and loaded onto a semi-truck for the switch to Tulsa Zoo. It is unclear how lengthy the journey will take.

We reached out to a number of L.A. Zoo officers, however nobody’s known as again, and L.A.’s Deputy Mayor — who oversees the zoo — hung up on us.

Advocates for Billy and Tina have been all around the L.A. Zoo for years, as a result of Billy and Tina, Asian elephants, have been saved in an enclosure far too small for them.

Zoo officers say they’re going to have extra room to roam in Tulsa, however because the letter to Mayor Bass stated, “it’s practically unattainable to humanely hold elephants in conventional zoos.”