Roxana Badaloni
03/29/2021 10:22 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/29/2021 10:22 AM
The four elephants from the former Mendoza zoo began the setting process to travel in a container to a reserve in Brazil.
Pocha (56) and her daughter Guillermina (23) are the first females to undertake, in just over a month, a journey towards a new life without confinement.
They will go to the only elephant sanctuary in Latin America.
The Secretary of the Environment of Mendoza, Humberto Mingorance, celebrated the arrival of the containers in which the elephants will be transferred.
They will travel by land to Mato Grosso, in Brazil.
"We received the containers in which we will transport the elephants, who
began the quarantine phase for their subsequent journey,
" said Mingorance.
Two trainers arrived from the United States to participate in the training process.
"Without the logistical and scientific support of the Franz Weber Foundation, transfers to the sanctuary would not be possible," the governor of Mendoza, Rodolfo Suarez, thanked on his Twitter account.
The day arrived and the training of the elephants of the eco-park began for their transfer to the sanctuary in Brazil.
Photo: Ignacio Blanco / Los Andes
The American specialist in psychology and biology Chrissy Pratt (Michigan), together with Karissa Reinbold (New York), are in charge of gaining the trust of the elephants and preparing them to travel in the container.
They started with Pocha and Guillermina, the Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).
Then the process will continue with the other two specimens: Kenya (African elephant) and Tamy (Guillermina's father and also of Asian origin), who will have to stay in Mendoza for several months until they are transferred to Brazil.
From zoo to ecopark
Mendoza Zoo
closed in November 2016
.
The property adjacent to the Cerro de la Gloria in the General San Martín park, in the city of Mendoza, was transformed into an eco-park.
With the enactment of provincial law 8,945, a plan to divert animals that were out of their natural habitat, such as chimpanzees, lions and elephants, began.
The elephants.
Photo: Ignacio Blanco / Los Andes
How will the transfer be
The Mato Grosso elephant sanctuary has
natural environments adapted
to improve and guarantee the elephants' quality of life, as well as a highly qualified human team.
The trip will be funded under the modality of crowdfunding, with the collaboration of people who
donate money for the welfare of these animals
.
Pocha and Guillermina will have to undergo medical controls for 30 days: take blood samples, deworm them, wash their tubes and add vaccines and a chip to be able to comply with the sanitary requirements of the transfer to Brazil.
The authorities of the Mendoza Ecopark estimate that at the end of April, they will try to get the elephants ready to climb into the container that will take them
3,000 kilometers by land
to the central region of Brazil, where Mato Grosso is located.
The boxes where they will climb weigh five tons each and measure 3.20 meters high.
The elephants
will be monitored with a camera throughout the journey.
Coach Chrissy Pratt teaching Pocha to blow water with her trunk.
Photo: Ignacio Blanco / Los Andes
Trainer Pratt told
Los Andes
newspaper
how they carry out the adaptation process, assisted by Esteban Guevara and Héctor Troncozo, the two historic keepers of the elephants at the Mendoza zoo.
“The first step is to build
a relationship of trust and friendship
through rewards with the food they like the most, such as squash, banana and watermelon.
We persuade them to choose what we propose but never through punishment.
The link must be positive, ”says the specialist.
The biologist explained that it is planned that one of the two trainers can accompany the elephants' journey: “Once in Brazil, you
have to support their adaptation
.
Some of us will have to stay in Mendoza together with Kenya and Tamy who, logically, will suffer the absence, ”said Pratt.
Coach Chrissy Pratt feeding Pocha and Guillermina.
Photo: Ignacio Blanco / Los Andes
The history of elephants
Three of the four elephants that still remain in Mendoza arrived through exchanges and donations.
Only Guillermina was sired in the General San Martín park zoo.
Pocha (56 years old) was born in India in 1965. When she was three years old, she was transferred for an exchange from the German zoo Tierpark Hagenbeck.
Their calf, Guillermina, was born in 1998 at the Mendoza Zoo.
At 23 years of age, this animal
never knew freedom
and its redoubt of life was a pit of cement and stone, quite small for its size.
Tamy (51) was born in 1970. She arrived in Mendoza in 1984 donated by the Gasca Brothers circus.
Kenya (40), the only one of African origin, was born in 1981. She arrived in Mendoza in 1985, also from the German Tierpark Hagenbeck zoo for exchange.
EMJ
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