Monarto Safari Park to welcome two more Asian elephants

Monarto Safari Park is trumpeting with excitement over plans to bring more elephants to South Australia.

Monarto Safari Park’s Asian “elephant herd” is growing by the day.

Two female elephants from Taronga Zoo will join a trio of three other animals that had already been selected to start new lives at the park on the completion of a multimillion-dollar enclosure.

The trio is made up of Auckland’s 40-year-old elephant Burma, as well as Perth’s 33-year-olds Permai and Putra Mas.

Now it has been announced Pak Boon and Tang Mo will join them.

Tang Mo and Pak Boon at Taronga Sydney Zoo. Source: Supplied.

Auckland Zoo Elephant Burma. Picture: ZoosSA

Taronga Zoo's elephants Tang Mo and Pak Boong. Picture: Toby Zerna

The CEO of Taronga Conservation Society Australia Cameron Kerr said Pak Boon and Tang Mo would be happy in their new SA home.

“These magnificent creatures will certainly be missed in Sydney,” he said.

“I’m so heartened to plan for their move to Monarto Safari Park where they will be able to join a bigger, social herd and live in a larger more complex habitat.”

The conservation park raised $2m at the end of last year to build their habitat, which will include a mammoth housing barn as well as waterholes.

The elephants are expected to arrive in SA at end of 2024 to mid-2025.

This would be the first time SA has had elephants in a zoo since the death of beloved matriarch Samorn at Monarto in 1994.