A Huge Move - the Moving of Elephants from Toronto to California

One of the three elephants moved from Toronto Zoo

When the television news anchor reported that the three female elephants: Toka, Thika and Iringa would make the long journey from the Toronto Zoo to their new home in California, it caught my attention. I was mesmerized by this  huge move of these elephants being retired by the Toronto Metro Zoo.

They were to travel for close to 60 hours in  massive eighteen wheelers from Toronto, all the way to St Andres, California , a distance of 4100kms.

For the past week, the three elephants’ move was reported daily on the Canadian news. Many Canadians including me followed their journey, gluing to the television screen for the evening news.

Tonight, I ran home and planted myself in front of the TV set and watched the hour long special report about the elephants' journey produced  by the CBC’s Fifth Estate program.

It reported that in 2011, the Toronto zoo started planning this move. They set out certain criteria and looked for the best place to retire the animals, one of which was they did not want the animal sanctuary to keep animals in captivity.

The P.A.W.S .- Performing Animals Welfare Society Sanctuary, a 88 acres spacious animal sanctuary seemed to be the right place.

Transporting the elephants in 18 wheelers

A lot of things could go wrong with such a huge move:  Distance could be too long; equipment could malfunction, chains could loosen or animal could be sick.

The first elephant ever transported was called Maggie, 6 years ago from Alaska to the same sanctuary in California via the largest US military plane.

Special crate made to transport the elephants

To transport the elephants safely, three special crates were made and  the elephants were trained to get in and out of them for long time before the actual moving day. 

The zoo people didn’t want the elephants to lie down because it might be difficult for them to get up once they lie down.Therefore, so the elephants were purposely not given a lot of space during the transport so they could not lie down.

Lowering the elephants to the barn

To meet the needs of the animals, lots of food  such as fresh hays, snack food and water were sent with the caravan; a team of people from the Toronto zoo also traveled with the elephants to look after them.

Along the way, workers cleaned up about 120 kg of dung a day to keep the crate clean for the elephants!

The three elephants finally got to their destination and they were lowered from the crates.  When these new elephants were going into the barn, the noise there was very loud  as the elephants in the barn were very excited to see new elephants coming in to join them.  

Bob  Barker

It cost almost one million dollars for the convoy and it was Bob Barker, the TV host of“ The Price is Right”, who offered to pay for the transport expenses.

Toka, Thika and Iringa  seem to be adapting to their new spacious home and have started meeting and mingling with other elephants.

The newcomer, far right, backs her way into the group the first time she met other elephants

The first time they met their counterparts at the sanctuary, the new elephants went into the group with their backs first.

We are glad to see that these elephants will live out their retirement life basking in the warm California sun.

It has been reported that non captive female elephants can give birth in the wild up to sixty years old. Toka, Thika and Iringa  are thirty years old only which means they still have a long time to give births!

R.T.
Toronto
Source - Pictures from CBC's Fifith Estate Broadcast & Google