After a marketing campaign by environmentalists, Benito the giraffe left Mexico’s northern border and its extreme weather conditions Sunday night time and headed for a conservation park in central Mexico, the place the local weather is extra akin to his pure habitat and already a house to different giraffes.
Environmental teams had voiced strong complaints about conditions confronted by Benito on the city-run Central Park zoo in Ciudad Juarez, throughout from El Paso, Texas, the place climate in the summertime is brutally scorching and temperatures plunge in the course of the winter.
A crane rigorously lifted a container holding the giraffe onto a truck whereas metropolis dwellers in love with the animal stated a bittersweet goodbye. Some activists shouted, “We love you, Benito.”
“We’re a little sad that he’s leaving. but it also gives us great pleasure … The weather conditions are not suitable for him,” stated Flor Ortega, a 23-year-old who stated she had spent her complete life visiting Modesto the giraffe, which was on the zoo for twenty years earlier than dying in 2022, after which Benito, which arrived final Could.
The switch couldn’t have come at a greater time, simply when a brand new chilly entrance was about to hit the world.
Benito was heading on a journey of two,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) and about 50 hours on the highway to his new house, the African Safari park within the state of Puebla. Guests journey via the park in all-terrain autos to look at animals as in the event that they had been on safari.
The container, greater than 5 meters excessive (16.5 ft), was specifically designed for Benito, and the giraffe was allowed to turn out to be accustomed to it in the course of the weekend, stated Frank Carlos Camacho, the director of the park.
The animal’s head sticks up via the highest of the massive wood and metallic field, however a body permits a tarp to cowl over Benito and insulate him from the chilly, wind and rain in addition to from noise and the sight of panorama rushing by.
“The giraffe has huge, huge eyes and gains height to be able to look for predators in the savannah and we have to inhibit that so that it does not have any source of stress,” Camacho stated in a video posted on social media.
Contained in the container is straw, alfalfa, water and greens, and digital gear will monitor the temperature and permit technicians to even discuss to the animal.
Exterior, Benito might be guarded by a convoy of autos with officers from the Federal Lawyer for Environmental Safety and the Nationwide Guard.
“He’s going to be calm, he’s going to travel super well. We’ve done this many times,” Camacho stated.
