Jumbos finally cleared for
landing at Taronga Zoo
February 7, 2006
TARONGA ZOO will get its new elephants after all.
The zoo and its Melbourne counterpart were cleared to import eight Asian elephants yesterday after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal set out new conditions for their welfare.
More than a year after the animals were first expected to be moved from Thailand, their future has been settled. After a further quarantine on the Cocos Islands, the eight young pachyderms are expected to arrive in the second half of the year.
Though the zoos have spent millions on new exhibits, the tribunal demanded changes to the facilities at each. It also warned that if plans to walk the animals do not work out at Taronga, some of the elephants might have to be transferred to Dubbo.
Chaired by its president, Justice Garry Downes, the tribunal was asked by animal welfare groups to reject an import permit granted by the federal Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, last July.
The tribunal set aside the permit and issued another with conditions designed to improve the elephants' lives in confinement. Changes called for more comfortable sleeping surfaces, bigger mud wallows and softer flooring.
Aged from five years to 13, the elephants have been held for 16 months at a Thai quarantine centre awaiting the permit. Five will go to Taronga and three to Melbourne Zoo.
Both zoos were told to install two-metre-high outdoor earth mounds for the elephants to sleep on, two 24-square-metre mud wallows, and full-time closed circuit television monitoring in the enclosures.
http://smh.com.au/news/national/jumbos-finally-cleared-for-landing-at-taronga-zoo/2006/02/06/1139074171400.html
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