Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Elmendorf C-17 crew takes elephant to Calif.

Secured inside the cargo hold of C-17 Globemaster, Maggie the elephant on Thursday night made her way to a new home in California.

The flight mission: “Operation Maggie Migration.”

The 25-year-old African elephant arrived at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., around midnight. From Travis, she was bound for the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in the northern California town of San Andreas, about 85 miles away.

The Air Force agreed Oct. 25 to transport Maggie — for years Alaska’s only elephant — as part of a training mission after officials with PAWS and the zoo discovered Maggie and her 10,000-pound crate were too big for commercial airlines. As part of the agreement, PAWS committed to pay the Air Force’s costs, expected to total at least $200,000. Television game show host Bob Barker promised to donate $750,000 for Maggie’s care.

Thursday afternoon at the Anchorage Zoo, Maggie was loaded into a custom-made metal crate and trucked to nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base, home to a C-17 unit, the 517th Airlift Squadron. As Maggie was rolled into the C-17, she sounded several blasts with her trunk.

To calm her nerves during the 4½-hour flight, the transport team, which included veterinarians, brought along some of Maggie’s favorite toys.

“She was kept restrained enough to keep her from trying to turn around in the cage, but she is still able to move and sway a bit,” said Margaret Whittaker, animal behavior consultant to PAWS.

The aircrew also sought to keep Maggie calm by avoiding sharp turns or sudden changes in altitude.

When Maggie landed at Travis, members of the 60th Aerial Port Squadron removed Maggie’s crate and mounted the container on a trailer for the final leg of her trip Friday morning.

At her new home, Maggie will have 30 acres to share with nine other elephants.

Maggie first arrived in Alaska as a baby in 1983. Since another elephant died in the mid-1990s, she lived as the sole occupant in the zoo’s elephant house, with concrete floors and a small outside enclosure.

The move comes after a months-long battle between those wanting Maggie to stay at The Alaska Zoo and those advocating for a warmer climate.

The zoo board initially balked at sending Maggie to another facility. With pressure mounting to do better by the elephant, the zoo embarked on an expensive campaign to improve her quality of life, including building a $100,000 treadmill Maggie couldn’t be coaxed into using.

Pleas to have her moved grew louder this year when Maggie twice couldn’t get back on her feet. Firefighters were called to hoist the 8,000-pound animal into a standing position.

Previous stories

Air Force agrees to move elephant on C-17

Discuss: Moving Maggie