Giraffe Benito arrives at his new residence in Mexico : NPR

Employees put together Benito the giraffe for transport on the city-run Central Park Zoo in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Sunday. After a marketing campaign by environmentalists, Benito left Mexico’s northern border and its excessive climate circumstances Sunday evening and headed for a conservation park in central Mexico.

Christian Chavez/AP

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Christian Chavez/AP

Employees put together Benito the giraffe for transport on the city-run Central Park Zoo in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Sunday. After a marketing campaign by environmentalists, Benito left Mexico’s northern border and its excessive climate circumstances Sunday evening and headed for a conservation park in central Mexico.

Christian Chavez/AP

A four-year-old giraffe named Benito arrived Tuesday at his new residence in a big animal park in central Mexico. Now begins the exhausting half for the gangly post-adolescent: becoming in with the gang of seven giraffes in his new neighborhood.

The 7.5-acre (3-hectare) enclosure on the Africam Safari park in central Puebla state already holds seven giraffes, together with three females.

Benito, who was transferred following strain from animal advocates, has spent the final 12 months completely alone at a dusty metropolis park within the northern border metropolis of Ciudad Juarez. As he enters maturity, as with many species, he could must rapidly develop some social abilities.

He presently is being held in a tall-roofed medical analysis room on the park, after his 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile) journey from Ciudad Juarez in a crate on the again of a flat-bed truck. The park desires to maneuver him out to satisfy the remainder of the herd as quickly as potential, probably inside a few days.

“He has been alone for a very long time, and it’s going to take us just a few days to introduce him to the remainder of the herd,” mentioned Frank Carlos Camacho, the director of the Africam Safari park. “Besides, we consider it is a very steady herd and that they may settle for him.”

“All of it depends upon Benito, how he interacts with the herd,” he added.

Benito was seen on video sniffing round his new residence and accepting a carrot from a park employees member Tuesday.

His new environment are a radical change.

In Ciudad Juarez, throughout the border from El Paso, Texas, Benito had little to do in his half-acre (0.2 hectare) enclosure; he ate quite a lot of alfalfa, a fodder often given to cows.

Within the border space’s blazing scorching summer season, Benito had little shade, Photographs confirmed him crouching to suit below a small, round shade cover. Within the winter, ice typically shaped in his enclosure’s pond. There have been few bushes for him to munch on.

On the Africam park, Benito will begin consuming leaves from the acacia tree, one of many favourite meals of giraffes of their native habitat in Africa.

“Benito goes to be launched to meals which are new to him, that are those his cousins in Africa eat,” mentioned Camacho. “Although Benito is just not aware of them, he’ll like them.”

Giraffes attain sexual maturity round 4 years — Benito’s age, when many males separate from the herd and go searching for a mate — and might stay to round 25.

“I’m more than happy that Benito would be the subsequent stud at Africam,” Camacho mentioned.

The journey to the Africam Safari park, which began late Sunday, took round 30 hours, lower than initially anticipated. The specially-designed crate Benito was carried in was accompanied by a convoy of police, Nationwide Guard and press automobiles.

His switch was achieved following a marketing campaign by animal rights activists in Ciudad Juarez, the place temperatures reached as little as 39 levels F (4 levels C) Sunday. They mentioned the winter chilly and summer season solar, the small enclosure, eating regimen and solitude simply weren’t truthful for Benito.

Ana Félix, one of many leaders of the motion to get Benito a brand new residence, mentioned Benito’s transfer was a victory that “we’re going to proceed celebrating for the subsequent few days.”

However Félix notes that the job of animal activists is not over: She desires to win a brand new residence for Ely, an aged former circus elephant held largely alone at a cement-ringed Mexico Metropolis zoo enclosure. The animal’s unusual, repetitive behaviors and downcast demeanor have earned earned her the casual title of ‘the saddest elephant on the planet.’

“We’re going for Ely,” Félix mentioned. “Let’s assist the activists, in order that Ely may get out of the confinement she is in now.”

Regardless of all his difficulties, Benito received many individuals’s hearts in Ciudad Juarez.

“We’re just a little unhappy that he is leaving. nevertheless it additionally provides us nice pleasure … The climate circumstances are usually not appropriate for him,” mentioned Flor Ortega, a 23-year-old who mentioned she had spent her total life visiting Modesto, one other giraffe who was on the zoo for twenty years earlier than dying in 2022. Benito arrived there final Might.

Benito initially got here from a zoo within the far more temperate local weather of Sinaloa, a state on Mexico’s northern Pacific coast. Benito could not stick with the 2 different giraffes there as a result of they had been a pair, and zookeepers feared the male would turn into territorial and assault the youthful Benito. So he was donated to Ciudad Juarez.

On the Africam Safari park, the giraffes stay in a a lot bigger area that extra intently resembles their pure habitat. Guests journey by the park in all-terrain automobiles to look at animals as in the event that they had been on safari.

At his new residence, it will likely be virtually like life will start once more for him, Camacho mentioned. “He is able to be a giraffe,” he mentioned. “He’ll reproduce quickly, and contribute to the conservation of this glorious species.”