Okinawa Kodomo-no Kuni Zoo & Museum will welcome two of Asian elephants from Tohoku Safari Park in Fukushima Prefecture as winter guests.

The pachyderms will be in Okinawa Zoo from Dec. 1^st through the end of March, as the temperatures during winter months in Fukushima will go sub-zero.  Zookeepers in Fukushima are concerned that in Fukushima, as the Asian elephants can’t go out much because of cold, the lack of exercise could cause some kind of injury for them.

Both elephants are female. One is 27 and the other 21 years old.  These two elephants came from Laos in 2014 to cheer up children of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami disaster area.  During the past two winters, they were moved to Tochigi Prefecture, but officials said that heating costs in the elephants’ enclosure have increased too high so it’s cheaper to bring them to Okinawa for their winter ‘holiday.’

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