A heartwarming reunion occurred at a German zoo when a 39-year-old elephant named Pori met her daughter Tana and granddaughters Tamika and Elani after a 12-year separation.
The emotional encounter was captured in a moving image of the three generations touching trunks at the Bergzoo in Halle, Germany.
Watch the video at the end.
The reunion is part of a program to recreate natural familial bonding in captive elephant herds.
In the wild, female elephants usually stay with their mothers for life, while males leave the herd to find a mate.
Pori, an African elephant born in Zimbabwe in 1981, was brought to Germany in 1983, where she lived in the Magdeburg Zoo until 1997 before being sent to Tierpark Berlin for breeding. She gave birth to her first calf, Tana, in 2001.
The elephant house will remain closed temporarily to allow the elephants to adjust to their new family dynamics.
However, visitors can still glimpse the reunited family in their outdoor area. Pori is currently in a separate enclosure but will soon join her offspring in the outer section to become familiar with each other.
Dr. Dennis Muller, the Zoo director, emphasized the importance of Pori’s arrival in Halle for modern elephant husbandry.
He noted that their goal is to ensure all elephant herds in European zoos are cared for in natural family structures. This reunion brings them one step closer to achieving that aim.
The elephant population in zoos is managed under a conservation breeding program (EEP), which consists of expert committees from different zoos that determine new herd compositions and coordinate animal moves.
