Corona Daily 363: Mara’s Story: Part One

In April, Thomas Sciolla, a wildlife and conservation manager was having a phone conversation with a bureaucrat from the Argentinean ministry. Yes, he understood the ministry was dealing with a crisis. But Mr Sciolla needed help to execute what had been planned for the last three years. The man from the ministry couldn’t believe his ears. With Argentina and Brazil in a lockdown, borders between them shut; Mr Sciolla wanted permissions to relocate a full sized elephant from Buenos Aires to Brazil.

The name of the Asian elephant was “Mara”. A little over fifty years of age, she weighed 5.5 tons, with dimensions of 5 (l) x 2 (w) x 3 (h) meters. For the past 25 years, Mara had lived at the Buenos Aires zoo. In that smallish zoo, she shared an enclosure with two African elephants, Kooky and Pupy. Apparently, Asian and African elephants have no common language. Mara often spent hours swaying her head in a circle, a typical sign of stress in captive elephants. Elephants are social creatures. Mara was essentially a prisoner at the Palermo Zoo. In 2016, Argentina renamed the place ‘Eco Park’. That didn’t change Mara’s plight.

Finally, a sensible committee made a plan to send the animals in captivity to sanctuaries in different parts of the world. A sanctuary in Brazil agreed to host Mara. But much paperwork would be required (to prevent smuggling of endangered species). Bureaucracy in both nations required Mara’s CV starting from birth.

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Mara’s case became famous in the Argentinean media. People began sending information. The Tejidor family, owners of a number of circuses, reported they had purchased Mara as a baby elephant in the early 1970s from Tierpark Hagenbeck, a zoo in Hamburg, Germany. That zoo confirmed it had bought Mara from India, where she was born in captivity at a work camp. Victor Tejidor, whose grandfather owned the circus, remembered Mara as a family member, adorable, intelligent, hungry for attention and affection. Mara travelled with them across Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, performing for the crowds. Old photos show her performing tricks on a small stool, balancing on her front feet.

In 1980, when Mara was twelve, the Tejidor family wound up the business and sold Mara to Circo Rodas, another circus. That is when her traumatic life began. She refused to perform, and killed the trainer. In articles about her, the adjective ‘killer’ is sometimes present. She suffered abuse at the new place. The constant chaining has caused a deformity in her right foot.

In 1995, Argentina banned the exploitation of animals in circuses. Mara was sent to the zoo in Buenos Aires. The nature of her captivity changed. For the next 25 years, the globetrotter spent a lonely life in a small enclosure.

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In 2014, Argentina had become the first country to recognize an orangutan named Sandra as a non-human person. She was given legal rights of her own. Later, she was sent to a Florida sanctuary. By March 2020, 860 animals had been relocated. Other than Sandra, the Orangutan, Mara was the most famous animal in the Buenos Aires zoo. She would be number 861.

The Brazilian sanctuary was 2700 km away. It was out of the question to take Mara on a flight. Elephants need a lengthy crate and noise training. And the expense would be $750,000 to $ 1 million. It was decided she would be taken by road. Permissions were sought. And then the pandemic happened.

(To be continued)

Ravi