For over thirty years, the incessant roar of the city was the only background noise to her existence. Pupy, an African elephant victim of illegal wildlife trafficking, arrived in Buenos Aires in 1993, when zoos were still showcases of exoticism.
Since then, she has lived in a small concrete enclosure, at the foot of the Temple of Vesta, in the current Ecopark of the city. Around her, one after the other, all her fellow captives died. But on April 14, that cage finally opened. Amid applause, tears and hugs, Pupy began a journey of almost 4,000 kilometers to the Global Sanctuary for Elephants, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. She will be the first inhabitant of the area reserved for African elephants: a natural habitat of over a thousand hectares, far from concrete, noise and solitude.
The transfer was not easy. It took more than two years to complete each step: authorizations, health protocols, gentle training. Pupy herself dictated the timing. In February, she refused to climb into the transport crate. But a month and a half later, something in her changed. She was ready.
Her keepers said goodbye to her as the crate – custom-designed for her well-being – was lifted by a crane and loaded onto the truck that would take her far away. The memory of Kuky, the last elephant she shared the enclosure with, was in the air. Kuky died in October 2024, a few hours after the authorizations for her departure arrived.
That night, Pupy vocalized for a long time. As if she knew. As if she was saying goodbye. Since then, she has been alone. But also, perhaps, more at peace. Now, in her new world, other familiar faces await her: Mara, transferred from the Ecopark in 2020, and Guillermina, who arrived from Mendoza with her mother Pocha, who later died in the sanctuary. Kenia, another African, will also soon join her.
That cry for freedom that began in 2015, when a group of activists symbolically embraced the zoo, today becomes reality. Pupy is out. Her steps on the red earth will be slow, but sure. She will no longer be an attraction: she is a free elephant.
