Three female elephants from Calgary arrived safely at their new home in Washington, D.C. Friday after a four-day journey.
The pachyderms Kamala, Swarma, and Maharani arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and will be in quarantine for a minimum of 30 days before being slowly introduced to the National Zoo’s other four Asian elephants.
“The whole transport team worked together seamlessly to make the elephants as comfortable as possible and get them to Washington safely,” said Tony Barthel, curator of Elephant Trails at the National Zoo, in a statement.
READ MORE: Elephant trio leaves Calgary Zoo for good
“It’s going to be very exciting to see the two herds get to know each other and form a new herd here.”
Kamala and Swarna were both born in 1975 in Sri Lanka and will rejoin two fellow Sri Lankan elephants, Bozie and Shanthi, at the National Zoo. The four elephants also previously lived together at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka.
The trip from Calgary to D.C. took 60 hours, with the animal transport team using television monitors to track the health of the elephants. The convoy stopped often to provide the animals with food and water.
The Zoo will provide updates on the elephants on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and through National Zoo News.
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