Sydney’s Taronga Zoo is home to more than 5,000 different animals, which means on any given day you’ll be able to get up close to giraffes, lions, sea lions, chimpanzees and even a cute-as-heck pygmy hippo. However, if you were hoping to get your peepers on the pair of Asian elephants who have called Taronga Zoo home since 2006 you’ve unfortunately missed your chance. On Tuesday April 29 Tang Mo and Pak Boon packed their bags and made the trek to their new digs in South Australia.
CEO of the Taronga Conservation Society Cameron Kerr told ABC News the Asian elephants were being relocated to a larger space where they will have an opportunity to be more social with other elephants.
“We've always been looking for another big site where we can bring elephants from different groups together to form a new community, because they are very complex social animals," he said.
"They are dearly loved by all our teams and so many of our visitors and zoo friends as well, so it's very sad to see them go. But there's two of them here and we feel there needs to be a bigger social group than that."
The pair travelled to Adelaide’s Montaro Safari Park via semi-trailer and every effort was made to ensure their commute was as comfortable as possible. It’s understood Tang Mo and Pak Boon were given seatbelts, a safety team to chaperone them and hopefully unlimited Netflix to aid the 22-hour drive.
This will be the first time Taronga Zoo has not had elephants on site since 1916 - but fear not a one-horned rhino and a water buffalo will be filling Tang Mo and Pak Boon’s very big shoes.
We wish the Asian Elephants all the very best on their new adventure, and hope to receive a postcard from SA soon.
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