Five Asian elephants for key breeding, advocacy programme at South Australia's Monarto Safari Park from 2025
Asian elephants Burma and Perma make their first contact at South Australia's Monarto Safari Park. Burma was trucked to Monarto park after being flown to Adelaide Airport (inset) from Auckland Zoo. Perma came from Perth Zoo via a 40-hour 2,700 kilometres journey across the Nullarbor Plain. Three other Asian elephants would join them at Monarto park.
Images courtesy Zoos South Australia
Burma, from New Zealand’s Auckland Zoo, and Permai, from Perth Zoo, led the way for South Australia’s Monarto Safari Park to gain a herd of five elephants in 2025.
The park’s new 12 hectares of elephant habitat would house 42-year-old female Burma, female Permai (age 33), male Putra Mas (33) from Perth Zoo, and females Pak Boon (31) and Tang Mo (25) from Taronga Zoo in Sydney. This ended 30 years of South Australia not having an elephant in its zoos.
Zoos South Australia chief executive Elaine Bensted said a 2023 call to raise funds to bring Asian elephants to Monarto Safari Park had prompted the big response from the public to “get behind this idea and commit to setting these elephants up with this social dynamic as a new herd”. The five Asian elephants at Monarto would form a founding herd as part of the Australasian Zoo and Aquarium Association’s regional breeding and advocacy programme.
Asian elephants were an endangered species with a continuing declining wild population due to habitat being lost and fragmented and conflict between humans and elephants. The Zoo and Aquarium Association programme enabled zoos to educate and inspire visitors, contribute to the conservation of wild elephants, ensure the best genetic outcomes with breeding, and work together to provide the best possible care for all elephants in the region.
Monarto Safari Park director Peter Clark said bringing the herd together was a winwin for everyone: “Female elephants are highly social and typically live in matriarchal herds. Here, within this new Monarto herd, Burma will contribute to and greatly benefit from being with other elephants in this way.” For the elephants, 12 hectares of Monarto’s Mallee Plains were divided into four areas to fit the complex social dynamics of both cows and bull elephants. Varied terrain and vegetation supported both foraging and shade and, most importantly for Asian elephants, there were many waterholes and mud wallows. A customised elephant barn would include heating, cooling and solar power. Additional visitor viewing areas and walking tracks were being developed.
