{"id":52422,"date":"2026-10-21T15:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T19:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=52422"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:09:22","slug":"in-brazils-chapada-dos-guimaraes-asian-elephant-sandro-about-54-walked-out-of-a-crate-after-44-years-at-the-sorocaba-zoo-and-on-his-second-night-he-chose-to-sleep-outside-under-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/in-brazils-chapada-dos-guimaraes-asian-elephant-sandro-about-54-walked-out-of-a-crate-after-44-years-at-the-sorocaba-zoo-and-on-his-second-night-he-chose-to-sleep-outside-under-the-stars\/52422\/","title":{"rendered":"In Brazil’s Chapada dos Guimar\u00e3es, Asian elephant Sandro, about 54, walked out of a crate after 44 years at the Sorocaba Zoo, and on his second night he chose to sleep outside under the stars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sandro, an Asian elephant of about 54, walked out of his transport crate at Elephant Sanctuary Brazil in Chapada dos Guimar\u00e3es, Mato Grosso, on September 18, 2026, after 44 years at the Sorocaba Zoo in S\u00e3o Paulo state. On his second night, with the barn left open, he chose to sleep outside under the stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trip took 2\u00bd days and covered roughly 1,000 miles (1,615 kilometers). The next morning, Scott Blais, co-founder of Global Sanctuary for Elephants, the U.S. nonprofit behind the Brazilian sanctuary, was filming at the barn gate when Sandro headed into Yard 3 in about 5 seconds, faster than Blais expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A circus calf, then 44 years in Sorocaba<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The sanctuary’s rescue page<\/a> says Sandro was captured in Asia in 1971 as a baby. He went first to the Cauberg zoo in the Netherlands, then came to Brazil with the Orlando Orfei circus. Sorocaba says he reached its Quinzinho de Barros Municipal Zoo on August 18, 1982, at about age 10. A female named Haisa arrived in 1995, and after she died on November 18, 2020, he was alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nonprofit says he spent 16 hours a night in a barn section “only inches taller than he was.” A prosecutor recommended moving him in 2020, and the zoo fought it in court. On August 28, 2026, the group announced that a three-judge panel had unanimously ruled the sanctuary the best place for him, though the city kept appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three cameras, a crane and a blocked road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The crate went into his enclosure on September 11, and Sandro stepped inside within minutes of having access, the team reported. On September 16, a crane and a flatbed truck came before dawn. The city says the crate doors were shut only after Sandro walked in on his own. Protesters blocked the road out, and security escorted the convoy through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blais said the crane was the largest the team had ever needed, and three cameras let them watch Sandro from behind, from the front and while he ate. The team does not sedate elephants for transport. Some people in Sorocaba were alarmed by two days on the road for a 54-year-old elephant, but Blais noted that his team had driven six days with older elephants, including Pocha and Ramba. “There’s no data to support those arguments,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also praised Sergio, the zoo caregiver who helped Sandro get used to the crate while protesters shouted at him. Moving large captive animals is rarely smooth, as the first rescue trip for 30 belugas left at a closed marine park<\/a> also showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A first night under the stars<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the truck reached the sanctuary on September 18 and the crate door opened, Sandro had his feet on the ground in under 30 seconds, by Blais’s count. “I blinked. It was out,” Blais said. Soon Sandro was throwing dirt, his ears flapping in what Blais described as a relaxed, content way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sandro,
Sandro stands in the open doorway of his transport crate. (Photo: Global Sanctuary for Elephants)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The barn stayed open on his second night, and Sandro slept outside instead. On September 20, Blais said it took about half an hour to find him in the bushes of Yard 3 that morning, before Sandro came out to eat a watermelon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandro is the first male to live at the sanctuary. His habitat covers about 13 acres (5 hectares) in three yards, with troughs, a mud wallow and a pond. Within days he was grazing on his own and walking up, down and sideways on the hills. On October 9, the team reported that he had knocked down his first little tree, and around then he let out a soft, deep rumble at a night feed, another first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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