Elephant move FAQs
After many years of calling Melbourne Zoo their home, your friendly neighbourhood elephants are upsizing to a new 21-hectare elephant habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo. Below are some frequently asked questions about the herd and their big move!
The move to Werribee Open Range Zoo
Melbourne Zoo’s elephant herd is moving to Werribee Open Range Zoo to provide them with a more natural and spacious environment. Both zoos are part of Zoos Victoria, which incorporates Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Kyabram Fauna Park. The new 21-hectare habitat at Werribee has been specially designed to meet the needs of elephants, offering larger spaces for roaming, foraging, and socialising. This move aligns with our commitment to providing the highest standard of care and wellbeing for these incredible animals.
The Elephant Trail at Werribee Open Range Zoo will comprise a 21-hectare open range habitat for Zoos Victoria’s growing Asian elephant herd, featuring a central habitat with sandpit and deep-water pools. Visitors will be able to view the Elephant barn including a communal area, training spaces and communal sleeping area. Five outer habitats will retain and build upon existing vegetation and significant trees. Two dedicated overpass bridges will allow Asian elephants to pass over visitor walking trails, between the central management yard and outer habitats.
The elephants will travel in purpose- designed, air-conditioned crates that ensure their comfort and safety throughout the journey. These crates are spacious enough for the elephants to stand and move slightly, and they are customized to meet the needs of each individual elephant. Mothers and calves will travel together and can touch each other during the journey which they find reassuring.
Those crates are lifted on to the back of trucks using cranes and then they go by road to Werribee Open Range Zoo. The cranes are "crab walked", this means the shipping container is carefully handled by two cranes and loaded gently on to the back of a truck.
No. They are gently moved onto the back of trucks, staying level at all times so as not to disturb the elephant. The container is only a few feet off the ground while being moved.
The adults will be lightly sedated to gentle ease any stress but this is planned to wear off so they can easily leave the crate when they arrive at Werribee Open Range Zoo. The vets liken the sedation to an anxious flyer taking a relaxant to take the edge off flying.
The adult elephants have leg straps, like wearing a seatbelt that enable them to brace against to make it easier for them to stand in the crate while it is moving. Their safety and comfort are crucial during the move.
When they are first moved by the cranes – we will hear them vocalising quite loudly with roars and trumpeting. The crane move is a part of the move we can’t train for, so it will be unfamiliar to them and that is a usual elephant reaction to something unfamiliar. But, they will soon settle down once they get going on their journey, as our team have witnessed the elephants becoming soothed by the motion of the lorry driving in previous moves.
The journey from Melbourne Zoo to Werribee Open Range Zoo is relatively short, it takes about 40 minutes. During the trip, the elephants will be closely monitored by their experienced keepers and a team of veterinarians to ensure they remain calm, comfortable and safe.
While Melbourne Zoo has been a wonderful home for the elephants, after welcoming three calves in the past 18 months, their growing herd requires more space to thrive. The expansive habitat at Werribee will allow them to engage in natural behaviours, such as walking long distances, mud bathing, and grazing in large herds—activities that are limited in an urban zoo setting. Their new, purpose-built habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo is the same size as the entire footprint of Melbourne Zoo, so it enables them more choice and control over their activities and preferred locations, better replicating how they would live in a wild habitat.
At Werribee Open Range Zoo, the elephants will enjoy:
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Vast open spaces to roam and graze.
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Stronger social bonds in the herd as they spend more time as a herd, rather than with keepers.
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Naturalistic features like mud wallows, waterholes, and shaded areas.
This new habitat is designed to replicate their wild habitat, promoting their physical and mental wellbeing.
Melbourne Zoo’s specialist elephant keepers will accompany the herd during the transition and continue to care for them at Werribee Open Range Zoo. Their expertise and bond with the elephants will remain a vital part of the animals’ lives.
Absolutely! Once the elephants have settled into their new home, visitors will have the opportunity to see them in their stunning new habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo. Stay tuned for announcements about when the new habitat will open to the public. The best way to stay updated is by following Zoos Victoria social media or becoming a member.
Melbourne Zoo has exciting plans for this space, which will be announced via Zoos Victoria's official channels in due course.
In the meantime, there will be lots of new things in other locations across the zoo though – an exciting new butterfly trail and new lemurs, colobus monkeys and a Komodo dragon!
The move will occur in carefully planned stages to ensure the elephants’ comfort and safety. Updates will be shared with the public as the process progresses.
Yes, the crates are designed with the elephants’ wellbeing in mind. They are air-conditioned to maintain a comfortable temperature during the journey, with ventilation to ensure the elephants are as relaxed as possible. The elephants have been gradually introduced to the crates for at least the past 12 months, to make them familiar and reduce any stress.
Hopefully just a few days – lots of things, like weather and herd health can affect the move The moves are staggered to enable the team to move crates back to Melbourne Zoo to be used for the next movements, to allow the team to rest and reset and to allow for time to check herd health prior to traveling.
EEHV
EEHV is a virus that can live in an elephant’s body without causing any symptoms, similar to how some herpes viruses behave in humans and other animals.
EEHV can cause a severe and often fatal illness known as EEHV Haemorrhagic Disease (EEHV-HD). The virus can be found in an elephant’s blood, trunk secretions, saliva, or faeces using a molecular test called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).
There is no vaccine for EEHV yet, and the disease can be difficult to treat once symptoms appear. Researchers are working hard to find effective treatments and eventually develop a vaccine. For most animals who develop the disease, it is fatal, with an 80 percent mortality rate. Many of you will remember our beautiful 9-year-old Man Jai died suddenly from EEHV in August 2023.
Elephants, including members of the MZ herd, are naturally infected with EEHVs through close contact with other elephants within a herd, including their mothers. These viruses occasionally reactivate and are shed in body fluids, infecting other animals. Mostly animals do not get sick during these shedding events, but when they do, it can be catastrophic.
Antibodies for the virus are passed from mother to calf via the placenta during gestation, protecting the calf, but these antibodies wane between 18 months and 2 years. Elephants become more susceptible to the disease after 2 years of age.
EEHVs and the disease they cause occur in both zoo elephants and those in the wild, although diagnosing and treating affected elephants in the wild is more difficult. EEHVs and the associated disease are something that vet and keeper teams across the world are aware of and constantly working towards improving treatment.
We currently conduct weekly tests on all elephants susceptible to EEHV, including Mali, Luk Chai, Aiyara, Roi, and Kati. The current age threshold for testing is 16 years old; however, this will be reassessed when Luk Chai reaches that age next year, as we will have his antibody information by then. If Luk Chai does not show sufficient antibody coverage, we will continue weekly testing. The best chance for survival is early detection through surveillance techniques such as trunk wash testing for viral shedding and PCR blood tests.
In addition to weekly blood tests for susceptible elephants, we also perform trunk wash tests every two weeks. A significant focus is placed on training the elephants for EEHV treatment behaviours, such as pill swallowing, receiving rectal fluids, and blood draws. Our veterinary team is also working diligently to conduct antibody testing on all our elephants to better understand each one's immunity to the different EEHV strains.
The Werribee Open Range Zoo veterinary hospital now has a molecular laboratory and trained staff members to perform qPCR testing on blood and trunk washes. Bringing this work in-house ensures rapid turnaround times for results. We are also working towards regular frequent ELISA testing, which is a laboratory test to detect whether the elephants have antibodies, and therefore some protection, in their blood.
The reality is that EEHV is a very common endemic virus in elephants which can lie dormant, so keeping an animal in isolation would not be the answer to preventing infection and could carry an additional poor welfare outcome for such a socially cohesive species.
It is also important for the calves to be exposed to this virus as their maternal antibody protection wanes so they can develop an immune response to EEHV. Calves not exposed to the virus are highly susceptible to developing the disease if they have their first exposure after they have exhausted their maternal antibodies.
Yes, sadly, Taronga Conservation Society Australia lost an 8-year-old calf, Tukta, to EEHV in 2018.
Man Jai is the second known death from EEHV in Australia.
Yes, it does, but it is a different strain and usually much milder in African elephants than in Asian elephants. There are no African elephants in Australia.
No, these viruses only affect elephants.