CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — After a campaign by environmentalists, Benito the giraffe left Mexico's northern border and its extreme weather conditions Sunday evening and headed to a nature reserve in central Mexico where the climate is more similar to its natural habitat and is already one Home for other giraffes.
Environmental groups had voiced strong complaints about the conditions faced by Benito at the city's Central Park Zoo in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, where the weather is brutally hot in the summer and temperatures plummet in the winter.
A crane carefully lifted a container containing the giraffe onto a truck as city residents who had fallen in love with the animal said a bittersweet goodbye. Some activists shouted: “We love you, Benito.”
“We are a little sad to see him go. But it also gives us great joy…The weather conditions are not suitable for him,” said Flor Ortega, a 23-year-old who said she has spent her whole life visiting Modesto the giraffe, the pair was at the zoo decades before his death in 2022, and then Benito, who arrived last May.
Workers prepare Benito the giraffe for transport at the city's Central Park Zoo in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
A truck carrying Benito the giraffe is escorted by a vehicle convoy with Federal Environmental Protection Agency and National Guard officials in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
The transfer couldn't have come at a better time, just as a new cold front was set to hit the area.
Benito was on a journey of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) and about 50 hours to his new home, the African Safari Park in the state of Puebla. Visitors drive through the park in all-terrain vehicles to observe animals like on a safari.
The more than five-meter-high container was designed specifically for Benito and the giraffe was allowed to familiarize himself with it over the weekend, said Frank Carlos Camacho, the park's director.
Onlookers photograph the crate containing Benito the giraffe as it is loaded for transport at the Central Park municipal zoo in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. After a campaign by environmentalists, Benito left Mexico's northern border and due to the extreme weather conditions, he made his way on Sunday evening to a nature reserve in central Mexico, where the climate is more similar to his natural habitat and where other giraffes already have a home. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
The animal's head protrudes through the top of the large wooden and metal box, but a frame allows Benito to be covered with a tarp, protecting him from cold, wind and rain, as well as noise and the sight of the countryside rushing by.
“The giraffe has huge, huge eyes and is gaining altitude to be able to search for predators in the savannah, and we need to suppress this so that it doesn't have a source of stress,” Camacho said in a video posted on social media.
The container contains straw, alfalfa, water and vegetables. Electronic devices monitor temperature and allow technicians to even talk to the animal.
Outside, Benito is guarded by a convoy of vehicles with officers from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and the National Guard.
“He will be calm, he will travel super well. We’ve done this many times,” Camacho said.
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Associated Press writer Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.