SHE has the nation’s biggest, but loneliest, of hearts.
Scotland’s last elephant, Mondula, lost her only companion last year, when enclosure mate Toto died. Now her keepers at Blair Drummond Safari Park, near Stirling, have launched a continent-wide search for a new friend for the pining 45-year-old female.
Elephants, just like people, need company to thrive. So the attraction has effectively put out a lonely hearts ad to the zoos of Europe.
Ailsa McCormick, head keeper of the park’s large mammals, wants to create a “retirement home” for older elephants where they could live out their final days in peace and comfort.
Mondula, she said, had taken time to adjust to being alone after Toto died in March. The pair never had the astonishingly powerful bonds that related elephants can have.
They were, Mrs McCormick said, more like two crotchety old women who tolerated – but needed – each other.
Mrs McCormick said: “When we lost Toto it was a very difficult time for Mondy and of all of the staff.
“The pair were never what you would exactly call friends because both came from different family groups, but they were together for around 20 years.
“It’s not that they did not like each other, just that they did not have the family bonds that elephants form in their herds in the wild.”
Toto arrived at the park from Basel Zoo and Mondula arrived from Erfurt Zoo in Germany in 1997, with both immediately becoming firm favourites with visitors and staff.
Blair Drummond’s third elephant, a female called Estrella, died aged 49 in 2013.
Toto collapsed just as staff were opening up the park and the elephant enclosure was closed off to the public while she was assessed.
After failed attempts to get her back on her feet, park vets decided to put her down to prevent her from any further suffering.
Visitors told how keepers who tried to raise the “gentle giant” were in tears as vets made the decision to euthanise her, “to avoid continued stress and suffering”.
Mrs McCormick is looking forward to welcoming a new female to share Mondula’s enclosure as soon as possible. The new elephant, like Mondula, must be African.
She said: “It’s something that we’re looking to do and we have had a lot of questions about Mondula being on her own, but it’s something that’s going to take time.
“Getting a companion is not going to happen as quickly as we, or she, would like – but it is going to happen.
“It has to be the right elephant with a temperament that’s compatible with Mondula’s.”
In the months after Toto passed away, staff put in a special effort to ensure that Mondula did not grow lonely.
Keepers redesigned feeding stations to give her a more stimulating environment, and made her habitat more interesting. The elephant was also given more grooming and interaction with park workers.
Mrs McCormick said: “She is doing really well. It has been a big change for her, but she has been really happy with the effort we have put in to helping her adjust.”
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