Herd of Asian elephants relocated to Werribee Open Range Zoo

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Staff at Werribee Open Range Zoo in Melbourne's west are celebrating the mammoth effort it's taken to successfully move a herd of elephants across the city to their new home. Keepers say the elephants are warming to their new digs but aren't quite ready for visitors just yet.

Transcript

00:00Zooming around the new stomping ground, Werribee Open Range Zoo trumpeting the arrival of nine

00:09Asian elephants.

00:10It's been years in the making and yeah, there's a lot of tears, there's a lot of joy.

00:14Planned to precision, the gentle giants made the 40 kilometre trek from Melbourne Zoo inside

00:20shipping containers on a convoy of trucks.

00:23And taking the first steps into the unknown, were at first a little cautious but soon gave

00:28in to curiosity.

00:30They came together, they were immediately trumpeting, touching each other, flapping

00:34their ears, which really indicated to us that they were feeling really comfortable.

00:37And the new arrivals aren't the only ones celebrating the successful relocation mission.

00:42The $88 million new habitat is almost 10 times the size of the elephant's previous enclosure.

00:48It's about the same size as the entire Melbourne Zoo.

00:51The spacious abode includes two mega pools, elephant barns, sprawling grasslands and mud

00:57wallows, which zookeepers say has already kept the young calves very busy.

01:02They're playing day one, it's all we could hope for.

01:06And they've slept beautifully last night.

01:08They're thriving and that's what we've done this for.

01:11Zookeepers say it will still be a few weeks before visitors can see the elephants on parade

01:16but after a big move, there's time to freshen up with a well-deserved bath.

01:21For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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