News from all over - Shimba Hills National Reserve
The 22-year-old bull elephant was tranquilized, bound with rope and loaded Thursday onto a truck's trailer — the start of an ambitious relocation operation for 400 of the animals. Then the trailer broke under the pachyderm's poundage.
The $3.2 million exercise, the biggest elephant relocation Kenya has ever attempted, was suspended indefinitely Thursday after the mishap. The bull was to have been the first of the elephants to be taken on an eight-hour drive from overcrowded Shimba Hills National Reserve more than 218 miles to the northern part of Tsavo East National Park.
Kenya Wildlife Service rangers had planned to begin moving entire elephant family groups starting Saturday, but now the schedule for the government-funded operation is uncertain.
The elephant's weight was not known, but it took nearly a dozen chanting, grunting men pulling ropes to move the trussed-up and tranquilized beast.
The $3.2 million exercise, the biggest elephant relocation Kenya has ever attempted, was suspended indefinitely Thursday after the mishap. The bull was to have been the first of the elephants to be taken on an eight-hour drive from overcrowded Shimba Hills National Reserve more than 218 miles to the northern part of Tsavo East National Park.
Kenya Wildlife Service rangers had planned to begin moving entire elephant family groups starting Saturday, but now the schedule for the government-funded operation is uncertain.
The elephant's weight was not known, but it took nearly a dozen chanting, grunting men pulling ropes to move the trussed-up and tranquilized beast.
