Today marks a major milestone in Monarto Safari Park’s project to home Asian Elephants with the commencement of major works on the Asian Elephant barn.

“We’ve been working at a record pace to get a new habitat ready for the Black Rhino and therefore start work on upgrading the existing elephant barn,” said Peter Clark, Director of Monarto Safari Park.

“The old elephant barn and surrounding area was until today used by the Black Rhinos and before that Samorn the Asian Elephant. Now the Black Rhino have a new habitat the barn will undergo a series of upgrades and an extension to bring the elephant barn up to current welfare and husbandry standards.

“At the moment, we are working on Burma arriving from Auckland Zoo in the last quarter of 2024.  The barn and the Phase One area of the Asian Elephant habitat needs to be ready for Burma’s arrival.

“Things need to move at a mammoth pace to be ready for Burma so there’s no time to rest. In May 2025, we are hoping Permai and Putra Mas will arrive from Perth Zoo. It’s all systems go!

“And while all that is happening it’s very exciting to see the Black Rhinos settled into their newest habitat. The pair will swap between the two habitats. Visitors can see the Black Rhinos from the bus and using the bus stop.

“In years to come, we hope to have more Black Rhino and embark on breeding this critically endangered species,” finished Peter.

In August 2023 Zoos SA started what they believed would be a three-month campaign called Help Us Home Elephants to raise funds to create a forever home for three Asian Elephants at Monarto Safari Park. A target amount of $2.025m was required to make the project a reality for elephants Burma (Auckland Zoo), Permai and Putra Mas (Perth Zoo). However, the project struck a chord with elephant lovers across the country and indeed the world with the total being reached in just 28 days with over 4,600 digging deep to raise over $2.4million. One particularly generous South Australian donated over $1million towards the campaign.

The Zoos SA Gala, held in February, raised an additional $74,000 towards creating accessible viewing and experience areas for the large habitat, which will open as part of Phase Two of the project.

More milestone moments? Find out more here https://elephants.monartosafari.com.au/