The Last Elephant Has Left Perth Zoo

After 127 years there are no more elephants left at Perth Zoo. Lisa and Russell reflect on the various gentle giants that graced our zoo over the years. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lisa, it's the end of an year.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
It is officially the end of an era. Ten ton
of precious cargo has started the twenty seven hundred kilometer
journey across the Nulla Bore, marking the end of more
than a century of elephants.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
At Perth, so a century. In the quarter one hundred
and twenty seven years.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
An elephant is on his way to that place southeast
of Adelaide, the Monato Safari Park, where the others have gone.
It's about seventy k southeast Adelaide. It closes the chapter
after one hundred and twenty seven years.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
There's always been an elephant. I remember Tricia, Remember Tricia.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
She was beautiful. She died just a couple of years ago.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
She did sixty five. She was she was an Asian elephant,
and she actually outlasted the average age of an Asian
elephant by about nearly twenty years.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
But where she did well, I mean, we're old enough
to remember when the poor elephant was in a very
small enclosure, looked like concrete triosure.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Looked like a parthenon.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
It did did didn't it? It was horrible.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
So you know where future mass is going is going
to be lovely. This is believed to be the longest
overland trip ever undertaken by a fully grown bull elephant
in recorded history. And Permi, I think that's how you
say her name. Yeah, she left pursue last year, so
she's waiting there.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
She's going to hold up the sign.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
When you arrive, it's going to say future bass and
then you'll know where to go.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
But what a trip though?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
It is a how do you reckon? How long do
you reckon?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
It'll take well, it'll take about week because it's an
extra heavy load or wide load, and it's going to
say wideload.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I'll have one of those things carried.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
You've got to stop at all the roadhouses along the way,
just for breaks, the chic roll and ships. You know
you need to do you need to stop. This is
part of going across another ball.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, they.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
They took they took him through all the greate training
that he needed.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
And then.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yes, exactly, and the truck is filled with all the
essentials required for his safe journey. Do you think he's
allowed to have peanuts? I mean, we're not allowed to
have peanuts when we travel.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
I can't open the bag. Look at the reverse cycle
air conditioning, Yes, snacks and water.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Camera. I mean you know you didn't get that when
you flew Tiger across the across the country a few ago.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Camera is like an lfluenza. It's going to be live
stream all the way.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Anyway, we bid you farewell, big boy, and.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
That's well done.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean I don't know quite what to make of
what's happened to Perth.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well it's a bit small now, though, isn't it. See
that's the thing about Manato over there's there's free to roam.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
In the wild, which which is a which is the preference?
Definitely is a good thing.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yes, hopefully sends us a tweet or a postcard or
something from Nado.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Don't be a strange to worry about it. Don't be
strange your future, okay,