This is amazing!

Giraffe Dies After Journey to Africa Mía
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff aroberson@ticotimes.net

Contrary to earlier reports from Africa Mía, a wildlife park in the northwestern Guanacaste province (Costa Rica), all of the animals that arrived there Tuesday from the United States are not well, tour director Diana Hernández told The Tico Times yesterday.

One of the reserve's six new giraffes died Tuesday afternoon because of stress it endured during the four-day journey from its previous home at a zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Africa Mía in the town of Bagaces, near Liberia.

The animal “was already in very serious condition when it got off the plane,” at Liberia's Daniel Oduber International Airport, Hernández said.

Along with 27 other animals including camels, zebras and several species of antelope, the giraffe left Cincinnati Friday and traveled by land to Miami, Florida, where their crates were loaded onto a 747 jet for Liberia.

“The problem was the transport and all the time they had to be in cages,” she said. “We had been told there could be losses.”

The other animals are all in good health and now roaming free around the 100 hectares of Africa Mía, a private park that opened in March 2006.

Luis Diego Marín, president of the Association for the Preservation of Wild Flora and Fauna (APREFLOFAS), called the giraffe's death “sad” but said he wasn't surprised.

“Zoos are always going to have these kinds of problems. That's why we don't approve of keeping wild animals out of their native habitats,” Marín said, adding that Africa Mía is a “great zoo” compared to Simón Bolívar National Zoo in San José, which APREFLOFAS has repeatedly denounced for what it calls unfit conditions and high rate of animal deaths (TT, Jan. 28, 2005).

“Obviously, transporting an animal like a giraffe is very complicated, and this will happen more if they (Africa Mía) bring more animals here,” he said.

Nevertheless, Marín said his group does not plan to speak out or take legal action against Africa Mía because the reserve obtained all the permits necessary from the Ministry of Energy and Environment (MINAE).