Auckland Zoo loses its beloved elephants Burma and Anjalee

Auckland Zoo has taken the "heartbreaking decision" to rehome its two female elephants to an overseas zoo.

Burma and Anjalee have both been at the zoo since it began trying to build a "sustainable elephant family herd". However, challenges beyond the zoo's control in the past five years mean they need to move on, Auckland Zoo director Kevin Buley says.

"Over the past five years, changing circumstances beyond our control mean that we are no longer in a position to give them the long-term future they need.

We’ve made the heart-breaking decision to move our elephant girls, Anjalee and Burma, to a new home - to give them both the family herd they need for their long-term wellbeing. Please find more information here - https://t.co/ezUXn5pagR pic.twitter.com/yyMrLKsQXF

— Auckland Zoo (@aucklandzoo) November 24, 2020

Elephants Anjalee (left) and Burma cool off with a dust bath Auckland Zoo under Covid-19 lockdown in April. Photo / File

An additional female elephant was expected from Sri Lanka's Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage shortly after Anjalee arrived in 2015 but that hadn't progressed, and she remained in Sri Lanka, Buley said.

Burma arrived at the zoo in 1990.

New elephant Anjalee meets old elephant Burma for the first time at Auckland Zoo in June 2015. Photo / Fiona Gillan

Adding to that, five artificial insemination attempts, working with the world's leading reproductive experts, were made with Anjalee between 2017 and 2019, however none was successful.

"Now, a number of insurmountable challenges mean that no further AI attempts are currently possible here in New Zealand."

Anjalee was now 14 and for her future health and wellbeing, the zoo wanted to do everything to protect her ability to breed.

"Now aged 14, she needs to get pregnant soon to avoid the long-term reproductive health issues that can face female elephants if they don't breed.

"Having exhausted all current possibilities to breed her here at Auckland Zoo, we will now work to move her to another accredited zoo programme where she can live in a multi-generational family herd.

"There she will be able to mate naturally with a bull elephant and have the best possible chance of eventually having her own elephant calf," Buley said.

However, exactly where she will go was not yet known as the zoo is currently working with its international zoo colleagues to ensure it finds the "best possible home overseas that meets both Anjalee and Burma's respective needs for their long-term wellbeing and future security".