21 Jun 2015

New elephant arrives at Auckland Zoo

4:20 pm on 21 June 2015

​​​Auckland Zoo's new elephant has arrived safely in New Zealand.

The eight-year-old female, Anjalee, was flown to Auckland this afternoon on a an Air Force Hercules plane, after a three-month quarantine in Niue.

She is the first of two new elephants coming to the zoo from an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka, and will join the zoo's current 32-year-old female elephant, Burma.

The zoo's director, Jonathan Wilcken, said it was fantastic that Anjalee had finally arrived.

Mr Wilcken said people would be able to visit Anjalee once she had settled into her new surroundings.

He said it was difficult to provide a time frame but people could keep an eye on the zoo's website for updates.