[Vision2020] The Elephant Has Landed

[Tom Hansen]

To wrap up my posting "A Final Trumpet and Maggie's Gone" from:

 

http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2007-November/049407.html

 

about Maggie, Anchorage's beloved pachyderm, and her move to California.

 

>From today's (November 3, 2007) Anchorage Daily News -

 

-----------------------------------

 


The elephant has landed 


Alaska 'migration' ends happily with pachyderm trumpeting 

 

Maggie the elephant explores her habitat at the PAWS sanctuary in California
Friday. 



 

 

 

The crate containing Maggie the elephant is secured inside a C-17
Globemaster cargo aircraft Nov. 1, 2007, at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Maggie
had been trucked from the Alaska Zoo, warmed up in an adjacent hangar, and
then brought to the flight line for Operation Maggie Migration.



 

 

 

Maggie, the 25-year-old African elephant who captured the hearts of
Anchorage for much of her life, arrived at her new Northern California home
safely Friday after the successful journey dubbed "Operation Maggie
Migration."

 

By mid-morning, Maggie was swinging her trunk around her new barn, checking
out the unfamiliar sights and sounds. By mid-afternoon, she was sunbathing
and eating California green grass and chasing birds.

 

She was even trumpeting and mock-charging the other elephants, separated
from her by a protective fence, said Pat Derby, president of the sanctuary
that is Maggie's new digs, run by the Performing Animal Welfare Society.

 

The mock charging was a good sign, according to Derby: "I wouldn't want her
to be afraid of (the other elephants)."

 

"She's doing great," Derby said. "She's very calm."

 

On the sanctuary's webcam Friday, viewers watched the other African
elephants meander up to a fence that separated them from Maggie. By late
afternoon, Maggie was walking up close to them, even raising her trunk over
the fence, seemingly to touch them.

 

Before Friday, Maggie had not seen another elephant in 10 years, not since
her companion, Annabelle, died in 1997.

 

In a morning telephone interview, Derby said, "I'm standing just a few feet
from her, and she just rumbled." Rumbling for elephants is like purring, she
said. "She may have just heard the other elephants."

 

When she first saw other elephants in the distance, "she kind of trumpeted
at them, put her ears out, took a few running steps towards them. ... They
put their ears out and she turned around and went back in the barn," said
Alaska Zoo director Pat Lampi, who was at the sanctuary overseeing the
handover of Maggie.

 

Maggie was expected to be placed Friday night in a 20,000-square-foot barn,
where each elephant has its own stall. 

 

Derby said she would stay in the barn with Maggie but did not expect to
sleep. The elephants -- Lulu, Ruby, Mara and 71 -- would likely raise a
ruckus with Maggie newly among them.

 

Maggie spent much of her first day in her new San Andreas home outside in
the 70-degree weather. About 75 acres of green and brown grassy pastures at
the foothills of the mountains stretched off in the distance. 

 

Derby said the only thing Maggie hasn't taken to are the artichokes in her
feed. "Apparently, she's not a California girl."

 

Maggie left Anchorage on Thursday night on a C-17 Air Force jet after months
of planning to move her. The trip was a $400,000 operation, funded by a
$750,000 donation from former game show host Bob Barker. The leftover money
will be used by the Performing Animal Welfare Society to support Maggie.

 

Alaska's only elephant was a source of much controversy for the Alaska Zoo,
which had looked after her since she was a baby. Animal welfare activists
wanted Maggie moved to a warmer climate and housed with other elephants, a
trend that zoos across the country have been following. 

 

The zoo board of directors initially resisted, but decided to make the move
after Maggie became ill, sat down and could not get up. Lampi has said she
had suffered from a bout of colic and is in good health now.

 

Asked if he was feeling good about her new home, Lampi said, "Absolutely ...
It's great."

 

Dick Thwaites, president of the zoo board, though, was more cautious, when
reached in Anchorage. He said he was sad about the move and "not fully
convinced, but very hopeful it works out for her."

 

Thwaites said Maggie's ornery personality still worries him. "As more time
goes on, everyone will become more comfortable," he said. 

 

-----------------------------------

 

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007) 

 

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