Benito the giraffe has left Mexico’s northern border and its extreme weather conditions for a conservation park in central Mexico – where the climate is closer to its natural habitat and is already a home to other giraffes.
The move came about after environmental groups voiced strong complaints about conditions faced by Benito at the city-run Central Park zoo in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, where weather in the summer is brutally hot and temperatures plunge during the winter.
A crane carefully lifted a container holding the giraffe onto a truck while city dwellers in love with the animal said a bittersweet goodbye. Some activists shouted: “We love you, Benito.”
The transfer could not have come at a better time, with a cold front about to hit the area.
Benito is heading on a journey of 1,200 miles and about 50 hours on the road to his new home, the African Safari park in the state of Puebla. Visitors travel through the park in all-terrain vehicles to observe animals as if they were on safari.
The container, more than 16.5ft high, was specially designed for Benito, and the giraffe was allowed to become familiar with it during the weekend, said Frank Carlos Camacho, the director of the park.
The animal’s head sticks up through the top of the big wooden and metal box, but a frame allows a tarp to cover over Benito and insulate him from the cold, wind and rain as well as from noise and the sight of landscape speeding by.
Mr Camacho said in a video posted on social media: “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.”
Inside the container is straw, alfalfa, water and vegetables, and electronic equipment will monitor the temperature and allow technicians to talk to the animal.
Outside, Benito will be guarded by a convoy of vehicles with officers from the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection and the National Guard.
“He’s going to be calm, he’s going to travel super well. We’ve done this many times,” Mr Camacho said.
