We’re excited to share that our colleagues at Zoos South Australia (ZSA) have reached their fundraising target of $2.025M to build an elephant habitat at their open range Monarto Safari Park - well ahead of their October deadline.

This means that ZSA can progress the construction of Phase One of its proposed Asian elephant habitat – and with this comes greater certainty of a forever home for Auckland Zoo’s Asian elephant, Burma.

Burma (40) and two other elephants from Perth Zoo in similar circumstances, would be the first elephants at the new 14ha (35 acre) open range habitat – one of the largest of its kind in the region – that will provide invaluable support for the Australasian regional elephant breeding and advocacy programme.

“This is an amazing effort from Zoos South Australia and their incredibly supportive community and of course, excellent news for Burma,” says Auckland Zoo director, Kevin Buley. “It’s still early days but growing certainty over Burma’s future means we can start planning now for a move some time in the next 12-18 months to a new home who are extremely excited to receive her.”