The elephant who after decades of imprisonment at the zoo regains her freedom during the pandemic

After decades of imprisonment and a journey from Argentina to Brazil, the elephantess Mara regained her freedom during the pandemic.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

After decades of imprisonment and a journey from Argentina to Brazil, the elephantess Mara regained her freedom, during the pandemic. Mara is 50 years old and has spent the last two and a half decades of her life in a dusty enclosure of a zoo in the Palermo neighborhood of downtown Buenos Aires.

An enclosure built in 1904 and resembling a posh Hindu temple in Mumbai and too crowded. Mara had been forced to share the small space with two other pachyderms with whom she didn't even get along.

So the elephant suffered from loneliness and didn't even have the opportunity to go for a walk to digest properly and keep her legs healthy. People like that started to protest that something had to be done, not just for Mara, but for all the animals, about 2500 in the whole zoo. A protest group, SinZoo, after numerous protests had launched a petition to free the prisoners and with the change of ownership, the zoo has turned into an eco park, with no more animals on display, but only with the native ones of the area. .

So many were moved to sanctuaries and reserves. Mara, who had always shown intolerance to hard training, even killing the trainer for exasperation, is precisely one of the over 800 animals that now have a new life. The committee planned to relocate her to Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, a newly established complex in the state of Mato Grosso. But moving an elephant across international borders and in the middle of the pandemic was not easy.

The elephant who after decades of imprisonment at the zoo regains her freedom during the pandemic

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In Mara's case, obtaining permits also meant proving where she was born and where she lived before the zoo in 1995. Then, she was confiscated by a circus, Circo Rodas, for mistreatment, even before that she was in a labor camp in India. The border between Argentina and Brazil had been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic for almost two months when, in early May, an unusual convoy approached the Puerto Iguazú checkpoint. There were 15 people, including a crane and a large truck in which Mara was traveling.
Control of temperature, documents, hours and hours of waiting, disinfection. For Mara, the dream of freedom was fading. But in the end, four of the men were allowed to cross the border with her and make the final journey to the shrine. But there was one final barrier - moving the exhausted elephant onto another truck capable of tackling the last few kilometers of bumpy road - and finally Mara could touch the grass.

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“It was worth it when you see that animal that has spent most of its life unnaturally, connecting with its essence and finding itself. For her, it took a long time, ”explains Tomás Sciolla, head of wildlife and conservation.

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Today Mara tramples the grass and has bonded with another Asian elephant named Rana. Their connection was so instantaneous and intense that some people present wondered if they had known each other in childhood. So out of the box and out of the circus, this beautiful elephant is enjoying the freedom.

Source: New York Times