site.bta Sofia Zoo's Elephants Frosya and Luisa Doing Great on World Elephant Day

Indian elephants Frosya and Luisa are doing great, Sofia Zoo said in a post on social media on the occasion of World Elephant Day, August 12. The two female elephants have been in Sofia Zoo since September 2023.

"We are happy that our newest female elephants, Frosya and Luisa, feel well here," Sofia Zoo's post reads.

Luisa and Frosya arrived in Sofia Zoo last September from Augsburg Zoo, Germany. After an adaption period indoors, they were presented to the public in October 2023. 

Frosya was born in Vietnam in 1980, and Luisa was born in the wild in India in 1974. After spending years in different zoos, in 1988 the two elephants met for the first time in Tierpark Berlin and have been inseparable since. Due to reconstruction works at the elephant enclosure, in 2020 they were moved to Augsburg Zoo.

Sofia Zoo decided to acquire new elephants after its 60-year-old Indian elephant Artayda passed away in late 2021.

For Bulgaria's oldest zoo, elephants are an important symbol as they were among the first animals on its collection established 135 years ago. The zoo's logo actually depicts a crowned elephant. 

The first elephants in Bulgaria were two Indian elephants delivered from Hamburg in 1912, Sofia Zoo said in a Facebook post. The three-year-old animals lived at the King's Vrana Residence near Sofia until 1929, when their special housing at Sofia Zoo was completed. Their relocation was a hard task: one elephant was transported in a metal cage pulled by four Hungarian horses, and the other walked the distance of 10 km accompanied by zoo keepers.

World Elephant Day has been marked since 2012 at the initiative of Thailand's Elephant Reintroduction Foundation and Canadian conservationist Patricia Sims. The aim is to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants and their protection worldwide. 

Just some 8,000 to 11,000 elephants remain in the wild in Southeast Asia and China. The main reason lies in the loss of habitat, WWF Bulgaria writes on Facebook for World Elephant Day. Asian elephants live on only 5% of their historical habitat. Last year, the international environmental organization launched a campaign raising awareness among citizens and local institutions about the protection and widening of the spaces where elephants still live in harmony with nature.