Video Credit: CEN/@EcopolisChile
This is the moment an elephant which was abused for 40 years in a Chilean circus is taken to a sanctuary in Brazil where she will live the rest of her days freely with her kind.
Female Asian elephant Ramba (Elephas maximus) was rescued in 2011 from a Chilean circus called Los Tachuelas, where she was forced to perform acrobatics and has been housed in the Safari Park in Rancagua ever since.
However, the elephant has now been transferred to a sanctuary after an operation which took over two years to organise.
The female Asian elephant was taken to the airport of Rancagua where she boarded a Boeing 747 in a transport cage and flew to Viracopos de Campinas in the southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.
Video Credit: CEN/@EcopolisChile
Videos show her transport cage being welcomed at the Brazilian airport where around 30 members of staff were needed to move the cage.
The 55-year-old elephant, which weighs 3.6 tonnes, was then taken in a lorry for five hours to the Elephant Sanctuary of Brazil, in Chapada dos Guimaraes, in the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
Local media reported that Ramba was the first case of the international rescue deriving from reports of animal abuse of an elephant born in captivity carried out in Brazil.
In the sanctuary, which is more than 1,100 hectares and is ready to welcome more elephants, Ramba will have a controlled diet and will share a home with at least other two animals.
Video Credit: CEN/@EcopolisChile
Maia and Guida, the first elephants which arrived to the sanctuary from other parts of the country, are also Asian elephants and are 47 and 45 year old respectively.
Daniel Moura, a biologist from the sanctuary, told reporters: “We are going to give her the independence she deserves. There, she will be an elephant again, and will do whatever she wants. It is also captivity, but with free proportions.”
Another six elephants are waiting for authorisation in Argentina to be taken to the sanctuary: Pocha, Guillermina, Kenya and Tamy, all of them in Mendoza province; Merry in Entre Rios, and Mara, in Buenos Aires.
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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