By Peggy Scott ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Photos by Ken Bohn
H SDZG PHOTOGRAPHER
ow does a 7,700-pound elephant travel halfway around the world? Any way she wants to! Old jokes aside, relocating a pachyderm to the other side of the globe involves much more than buying a plane ticket and packing her trunk. In reality, it took months of planning, permits, paperwork, and protocols to bring 41-year-old Mila from New Zealand to her new home in San Diego. It also involved a whole lot of teamwork. Ann Alfama, animal care supervisor at the San Diego Zoo’s Conrad Prebys Elephant Care Center, recalls the precision and complexity of the move. “We
worked closely with the Franklin Zoo Wildlife Sanctuary in Auckland and its charitable trust,” Ann says. “Everyone wanted the best for Mila and to make her move as safe and comfortable as possible.”
Planning Makes Perfect “Mila lived at the Franklin Zoo for two years, learning to make her own decisions,” explains Jenny Chung, the administration manager and trustee for the Franklin Zoo Charitable Trust, which governed the moving process. Jenny notes that San Diego wasn’t Mila’s only option. “There were six facilities that were willing to take Mila,”
SAN DIEGO ZOO GLOBAL
n
SANDIEGOZOO.ORG
45