Twycross Zoo says goodbye to its four Asian elephants

Individual keepers are getting the animals ready to travel from Twycross to Blackpool

Twycross Zoo has taken the difficult decision to move their four female elephants to a new zoo. Early next year Minbu, Tara, Noorjahan and Esha will travel up the motorway to Blackpool and a brand new £2.5m elephant habitat. We've been given exclusive access to the whole project, to try and understand what's involved in moving such large animals and why Twycross Zoo has decided to say goodbye to its elephants.

It's certainly not been an easy decision to take.

The elephants at Twycross have a modern enclosure and the very best care from a dedicated team of keepers.

Minbu has been at the zoo the longest, arriving in 1991 when she was six. And the zoo has had some success with breeding, both Tara and Esha were born at Twycross, Esha just four years ago.

Since Asian elephants are endangered it is very important to make sure females like those at Twycross have the opportunity to breed.

It's vital to preserve the species but it's also good for the health of the individual animals too.

A man-size enclosure

The four females at Twycross have a large modern enclosure to enjoy

Today a modern zoo like Twycross is all about conservation and giving their captive animals as much opportunity as possible to express natural behaviour.

For their four female elephants that would mean letting them live in a larger group which also contains an adult male.

However bull elephants can weigh more than five tons and can sometimes throw that weight around. The enclosure at Twycross may be perfect for four smaller females but it just couldn't withstand the introduction of a larger male.

This is why Twycross took the decision to start looking for a new home for its elephants.

The aim to find a zoo somewhere in Europe where Minbu, Tara, Noorjahan and Esha could live with other elephants including a bull.

And in the end the search lead them to Blackpool Zoo just three hours up the motorway where a brand new purpose built elephant enclosure has been built.

Anything for melon

It may only be a relatively short journey but it's still not easy moving four animals that weigh up to three tonnes each.

First you need two massive ten tonne elephant crates. These have been sitting at the edge of the elephant paddock at Twycross for a few months now.

Esha’s keeper gets her used to the “bracelet” she’ll wear during the journey to Blackpool

And the elephants have been getting used to walking into them, usually tempted inside by plenty of fresh fruit, Minbu will do anything for melon, apparently.

Each elephant's dedicated keeper has also been getting them used to their "seatbelt", a strap that goes around one foot to make sure the animals don't turn round in the crate during the journey and injure themselves.

The team from Twycross have been to Blackpool and the new keepers from Blackpool will be visiting Twycross to get to know their new charges, and the whole operation is being overseen by a specialist in elephant moving from Barcelona Zoo.

There's no set date for the move - it won't happen until all four animals are completely happy.

I'll be following this whole project every step of the way. It's a huge task and already there have been some tears, but in the end those involved know this is what's best for the elephants.