Hebei zoo trades 39 animals for Asian elephant

A zoo in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, has traded 39 of its animals for an Asian elephant from Kunming, Yunnan province, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported on Monday.

The female elephant — whose name is Aobao — is 7 years old, 1.8 meters tall and 2.2 meters long. She weighs 1.5 metric tons. She is expected to breed in two years, when she reaches the minimum age of sexual maturity.

No elephant in the Shijiazhuang zoo has ever produced offspring. It is rare for elephants in captivity to reproduce, according to a zoo worker.

Aobao was traded for 13 animal species, including giraffe, tiger, jackal and white stork, worth more than a million yuan ($160,278).

Aobao arrived at her new home on May 7. The zoo in Kunming, where Asian elephants have successfully produced offspring, has also sent elephants to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Shanghai.

Asian elephants are on the endangered species list under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and are under China’s first class protection rules.

zhangyu1@chinadaily.com.cn