Anchorage Daily News

Packing for a trip should be easy for an elephant, right? Its trunk is always ready to go.

Turns out, preparing for departure is actually quite involved.

Tasty, too.

Alaska Zoo trainers are using coconuts, Jolly Ranchers, strawberries and other treats to get Maggie, Alaska's only elephant, ready for a one-way trip to an elephant sanctuary in California.

The estimated time of departure is early November -- maybe two or three weeks from now. A two-day going-away party will be held Oct. 27-28, with free cake for zoo-goers and fond farewells for Maggie, who came to the zoo 24 years ago as an orphan.

Sometime today, Maggie will get a chance to enter the crate that will hold her during her flight south. To get ready for spending hours in the confined space, Maggie has gone through a series of pre-flight instructions that offer sweet rewards when she cooperates.

"Everything we've thrown at her, she's accepted readily," trainer Tessa Kara said Thursday. "Some elephants put their foot down with things they don't like, but she hasn't done that yet. We're very pleased with that."

The crate, on loan from the owner of a California trucking company who has moved elephants before, arrived at the zoo Wednesday. It's 18 feet long, 100 inches wide and 121 inches high, with heating units built into both doors and numerous vents near the ceiling.

Zoo director Pat Lampi said Elmendorf Air Force Base is seeking permission to fly the 8,000-pound elephant to Travis Air Force Base in a C-17 cargo plane.

If the Air Force approves Mission Maggie, taxpayers won't get stuck with the bill. The Performing Animal Welfare Society of San Andreas, Calif. -- Maggie's future caretaker -- said it will pay the $200,000 moving costs.

The zoo agreed to send Maggie to PAWS last month, ending months of controversy during which animal advocates argued that an African elephant has no business in frigid Alaska and that living alone made her fat and unhappy.

Those who wanted to keep the elephant here gave in this summer after fire crews and winches were needed twice in one week to hoist Maggie when she was unable to stand up on her own.

Though Maggie never took to a $150,000 treadmill built in an effort to keep her active during long, cold winters, the machine has proved useful in crate training.

Trainers put up plywood walls on either side of the treadmill to get Maggie used to entering and staying in an enclosed space.

"We're slowly showing her things she might see on the trip," Kara said, like padded foot chains, which Maggie will wear to remain stable inside the crate.

The reward system has proved most helpful.

Maggie gets small treats as she works her way through each task and a big treat when she completes it.

If she balks, the trainers simply walk away. That doesn't happen often, Lampi said, because Maggie learned quickly that Jolly Ranchers and watermelon are preferable to solitude.

When the day comes for Maggie to leave, she'll have to go without those treats.

To minimize bodily functions during what could be a five-hour flight, there'll be no food or water in the crate. Not even a bag of airline peanuts.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.