Maggie the flying elephant enjoys her place in the sun
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Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:25:01 GMT |
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San Francisco - Alaska's only elephant, Maggie, arrived at her sunny new home in California Friday and was showing no ill effects from her 16 hour journey by truck and military transport plane, officials said. "She seems to love it here," Kim Gardner, an official at the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), told Deutsche Presse- Agentur, dpa. "She really likes that sunshine." Maggie was airlifted from the Alaska Zoo after animal rights activists complained that life as the world's most northerly elephant was too lonely and cold for the Zimbabwean native. The 3.6-tonne-pachyderm was moved from her chilly concrete home in Anchorage in a heated crate for a 5,000-kilometre flight aboard an Air Force C-17. The 16-hour trip means she will now run free in a 40-hectare enclosure with seven other African elephants. Maggie has not enjoyed the company of other elephants since 1979, when Alaska's only other elephant died. Gardner said the elephants at PAWS were taking their time to introduce themselves, and though they grazed close to each other, they had not yet touched. The story of the move dominated news in Alaska for the past week. Maggie was accompanied on the trip by two veterinarians, an animal behaviour expert, several handlers, zoo officials and a TV crew for a total entourage of two dozen. Her favourite toys, including her hay basket and feeder balls, also travelled with her. Maggie was transported to Alaska from Zimbabwe 25 years ago as a cub after the rest of her herd was culled.
Copyright DPA
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Maggie the elephant
By:
Ann ,
Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:18:42 GMT
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I'm so happy to hear she made it to her destination. I've gone to our zoo to see her before as a child, since then I've come to understand what it might feel like to be cooped up in such an unforgiving climate; I'm very pleased that she might have the opportunity to feel more free and possibly more elephant-like in her new home.
For everyone who might think she was treated inhumanely, I want you to know that she meant a lot to us, if it was possible to keep her here humanely we would have never let her go. We loved Maggie more than anyone, which is why we wanted her to go. I wish her the best of luck in acclimating to her new environment.
If she could understand me I would like her to know that she has had a profound impact on me; whenever I think of an elephant I will thing of her and others like her. I could not imagine a world with out them. They are such special creatures.
Maggie ROCKS!
-Ann
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Maggie in California
By:
Versamedi ,
Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:22:17 GMT
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Welcome Maggie to our sunny California. Enjoy and live long!!!!
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Um
By:
Herself ,
Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:45:36 GMT
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Baby elephants are called calves, not cubs. Also, if she is 25 and the only other elephant in Alaska died in 1979, then, she has never enjoyed the company of other elephants in Alaska.
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