Anchorage Daily News

It finally happened, and on Valentine's eve: The fence came down and Alaska's favorite expatriate pachyderm got up close with her new circle of friends.

On Tuesday at the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California the fence separating Maggie from Mara, Ruby, Lulu and 71 was removed, for a little while anyhow.

"She marched right up to them, got right in the middle of them, ... she did a big rumble," said Pat Derby, founder and director of PAWS. "They all got excited and started rumbling and trumpeting."

And they didn't do any of the things keepers feared: The bigger elephants didn't lean on her and knock her over; they didn't fight; she wasn't scared of all the company after her lonely life in Alaska.

Maggie, once a resident of the Alaska Zoo, was kept in a private yard since she arrived at the sanctuary in November. Over time, she gradually began communicating with the other elephants across the fence. On Tuesday she was allowed to join them for an hour. The sanctuary will continue to increase her socialization time each day until she's integrated with the herd.

"You do this slowly," Derby said. "We don't want to overwhelm her or make her feel pressured."

So far, she doesn't seem pressured. She seems eager to socialize. In the barn at night, the elephants touch trunks while sleeping, Derby said. When Maggie gets lonely in her solo yard, she calls them back to the fence to be near her.

"She does not tolerate having them get too far away," Derby said.

The Alaska Zoo sent Maggie, a 25-year-old African elephant, south after a long and painful debate over where she belonged. People in Alaska and across the country argued for years that she should be sent somewhere warm where she could be with other elephants. Others said she was fine in Anchorage. In the midst of all the controversy, she collapsed and had to be rescued by the Anchorage Fire Department. In the end, the zoo gave in and the Air Force flew her to California.

Derby promised to post footage of Maggie and the other elephants on the PAWS Web site today or Saturday. She expects Maggie to be spending all her time with the other elephants within the next two or three weeks.

ADVERTISEMENT