Elephants off to Australia

2006-06-05 11:08

Bangkok - Eight Asian elephants are expected to rumble through Thailand's international airport on Monday on their way to their new homes in Australia, Thai and Australia officials said.

Each in their separate cages, the pachyderms will be loaded onto a cargo plane late on Monday and fly to their temporary home in Australia's Cocos islands where they will be quarantined for three months.

The transfer has been held up for more than a year as animal rights groups in both countries fought to have the move scuttled over concerns for the elephants' welfare.

Breeding programme

They claim the animals - who will be part of a captive breeding programme - will suffer in the confines of the zoos and that the programme won't help conserve the species.

"They're definitely coming and they're coming very soon," said Mark Williams, a spokesperson for Sydney's Taronga Zoo, which will be receiving some of the elephants.

"The requirement for importation is three months quarantine on Australian soil before they reach Sydney and Melbourne."

Enclosures

An Australian court in December cleared the way for the move to Sydney in New South Wales and Melbourne Zoo in the southern state of Victoria as long as the zoos met certain conditions guaranteeing the elephants' welfare.

Taronga Zoo has spent A$40m on a new enclosure complete with hot and cold bathing areas, an elephant exercise area, waterfalls and ponds and specially designed "sleeping mounds" for the pachyderms.

But the measures didn't go far enough for Thai and Australian animal rights groups who argued that the animals should be allowed to remain in the wild. The elephants have been kept for a year and a half in quarantine in Thailand while the dispute played out.

National symbol

"I'm opposed to this export and feel very sad with what the Thai authorities are doing," said Soraida Salwala, founder of the Friends of the Asian Elephant in Lampang, northern Thailand.

"Elephants are a Thai national symbol," she said. "I don't see why we have to send our animals to other countries. It's not in their behaviour to be away from their herd. I don't want them to be in an enclosure like in prison."

Survival of the species

Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell said the breeding programme would help ensure the survival of the species and protect the elephants from conflicts with Thai farmers and a shrinking natural habitat.

Campbell has said that with fewer than 50 000 Asian elephants remaining in the wild, "every attempt must be made to ensure the survival of the species, including through captive breeding programmes."

- AP