Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted talks her achievements, future Adelaide and Monarto zoo plans and award wins

Zoos SA chief Elaine Bensted has outlined ambitious plans for new exhibits, animals and experiences at both Adelaide and Monarto zoos, and also given an update on our pandas.

In her office at Adelaide Zoo, Elaine Bensted has a photo of Samorn, the beloved elephant who came to the zoo in 1956 and was its star attraction for 36 years.

Samorn – who used to delight children by taking them on cart rides around the zoo – lived in the confined space of her heritage-listed elephant house until 1991, when she was taken to wider pastures at the new Monarto Safari Park and died three years later at the age of 44.

“As a child, I remember the feeling of awe seeing her,” says Bensted, who has been Zoos SA chief executive since 2012.

Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted. Picture: Dean Martin

“Of course, animal welfare and how we care for animals such as elephants has moved on. But the magic and emotion that these enormous yet gentle and intelligent creatures bring out in us all is still very much alive.”

The historic photo appeared on Bensted’s desk, placed there by an excited colleague, to herald the return of elephants to South Australia after a long, 30-year absence.

Three of the gentle giants are coming to Monarto – bull Putra Mas and female Permai from Perth and female Burma from New Zealand – in a $6m development that is expected to welcome the first elephants this year. Another two are scheduled to join the herd down the track.

Plans are being drawn for an elephant habitat at the safari park’s sprawling, picturesque 1500ha home on the edge of the Murraylands.

Logistics are being mapped to relocate the elephants, including how to transport a three-tonne female from Auckland Zoo and where she can spend her quarantine.

“Having elephants return to SA will be a huge milestone in Zoos SA’s history,” she says.

“When Adelaide Zoo celebrated its 140th birthday in 2023, so many visitors came up to me and recollected their memories of elephants at Adelaide Zoo.

“What makes the elephant project really special is that it was made possible thanks to the generous support of the community.”

The return of elephants – made possible by $2m in public donations raised in a lightning-fast 28 days – is the latest in a list of gleaming highlights from Bensted’s 12-year tenure at Zoos SA, which welcomed a record 662,442 visitors to its two sites in 2023.

The organisation is still basking in last year’s “unexpected” gold medal win for Adelaide Zoo in the major tourist attraction category at the Australian Tourism Awards.

Bensted with a Palm Cockatoo at Adelaide Zoo. Picture: Dean Martin

Meerkats at Monarto Safari Park. Picture: Adrian Mann

“I asked when did South Australia last win this and they said South Australia has never won it, never the major tourist attraction. To be able to win that and be cheered on was a big thrill. There’s a lot of pride in those sort of things,” Bensted says.

It’s a feat Monarto hopes to match at this year’s awards night, to be held in Darwin next Friday, where it is a finalist in the top category. It qualified without even factoring in its big new attraction, the Wild Africa experience and tourist accommodation.

“If we don’t get this year’s, next year we’ll get it,” predicts an optimistic Bensted – “EB” to her staff – who took over the reins at Zoos SA when it was drowning in $25m of debt.

Wild Africa is the jewel in the crownfor Monarto, which is already hosting two types of sneak-peek safari tours of the brand new experience – in a 26-seater bus and a custom-built jeep that gives nine visitors at a time the chance to get up close and personal with the wildlife.

Later this year, Monarto’s $40m resort and glamping accommodation – funded by Jayco Australia founder/owner Gerry Ryan – is expected to open, making it the world’s largest safari experience outside of Africa and giving visitors the chance to sleep among the lions, giraffe, rhinos and chimpanzees.

For her 60th birthday, Bensted surprised friends and family by taking them on one of Monarto’s sneak peeks, stopping for drinks at a waterhole to watch the giraffes stride across the open plain.

A Zoos SA safari vehicle used for tours.

“It was pretty special, a lovely experience,” says Bensted, whose London-based daughter, Mhairi, 32, made a surprise appearance. “The sneak peeks are already selling out.”

Bensted is hoping there will be a lot more to celebrate in the coming years, with an overflowing to-do list that’s “just as long as it was 12 years ago”.

Next on her agenda are ambitious plans for Adelaide Zoo’s prime riverfront.

It’s currently home to a line of old operational sheds but Bensted’s vision is to turn it into an African oasis that can house the zoo’s lions.

Before that can even start, the operational facilities need to be moved to a new home on the site of the old Children’s Zoo, which has been remade in an area near the Nature’s Playground.

“There’s a lot that needs to be done before we start on the African oasis,” Bensted says.

“The sheds will go and operational facilities will be moved. After that we can start thinking about the lion facility, which will be about the same size as the Bamboo Forest area, 3500sq m, so significantly bigger than we have now.”

The future of Bamboo Forest residents Wang Wang and Fu Ni, Adelaide’s much-loved pandas, is also on Bensted’s crammed agenda.

Their 15-year fruitless quest to breed has been put on ice as the zoo’s agreement with China comes to an end.

Lion cubs at Monarto Safari Park. Picture: Geoff Brooks

It marks the end of years of hope that Fu Ni would fall pregnant, including one season when a cub seemed on the way.

“We were sure one year she was pregnant but it wasn’t to be,” Bensted says.

“Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed. They’re hard to get pregnant, they have such a limited window of once a year, they’re hard to keep pregnant because the female can reabsorb the foetus at any time right up until birth, and then when they’re born, they’re tiny.

“She was the first female panda to come to the Southern Hemisphere … and she now does come into season in our spring, but did that have any impact on her ability to fall pregnant? We just don’t know.

“There’s been a lot of jokes about poor old Wang Wang but the reality is for many years we were using artificial insemination, so whether he did the business or not didn’t matter, we knew he was a perfectly viable male.”

The zoo remains “hopeful” that a new agreement can be struck with China to keep pandas as a major attraction.

“We’ve always been really open that we’d like to see giant pandas as part of Adelaide Zoo but there’s a few steps that we need to go through and we’re just starting that process now with governance here in Australia but also with China,” Bensted says.

Wang Wang cools down with an ice bath at Adelaide Zoo. Picture: Matt Loxton

Bensted’s crammed agenda had to take aback seat during Covid, when Adelaide Zoo and Monarto had 791 days of being closed or restricted in capacity.

It was a tough time for staff and volunteers and there were tears of joy from members of the public, who formed a long queue, when they finally reopened from a 13-week lockdown in June 2020.

After getting Zoos SA back on track financially, the pandemic delivered a “very large, significant financial challenge” and all non-essential expenditure was put on hold.

“We’re a bit behind and I haven’t been crossing off as many things on my wish list as I would like,” says Bensted.

“We’re still in recovery mode so I’m hoping that next financial year is our first of what I call back to normal. We’re not back in surplus but getting closer and hoping we will be next year.”

For her direction through healthy and hard times, Bensted – who is also president of the Zoos and Aquarium Association of Australasia and was appointed to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums council last year – took home the gong this week in the Statewide Jobs Leader of the Year category of The Advertiser Sunday Mail SkyCity Woman of the Year Awards.

It’s welcome recognition, but for the avid animal-lover the biggest reward has been helping to bring species back from extinction in the wild.

Zoos SA’s “critical” conservation work – which saw the once-extinct pygmy blue-tongue lizard breed in captivity for the first time – sits top of Bensted’s agenda.

In recent years, Zoos SA has been involved in global programs to bring Mongolia’s Przewalski’s horse and the African scimitar-horned oryx back from extinction in the wild, and revive the numbers of critically endangered species such as orange-bellied parrots, bettongs and western swamp tortoises.

“We make money by being an attraction, so that we can do the conservation work,” she says.

For the little girl who dreamt of being a veterinarian, but fainted at the sight of blood, being top dog of Zoos SA has “absolutely been the best job” of a career that saw her become a leader in the banking industry and chief executive of TAFE SA.

“I enjoy working and really enjoyed TAFE, it does amazing work, but this one – it’s why I’m still here,” says Bensted, who keeps her own zoo attraction – four splendid tree frogs named Nudie (because he has no spots), Yoda, Cassidy and Lollihop – in a terrarium in her office.

“I think the little girl who wanted to be a vet would be pretty happy.”

Originally published as Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted talks her achievements, future Adelaide and Monarto zoo plans and award wins