No ordinary elephant
Wednesday 12 October 2005
Whipsnade welcomed two new additions to the park last week – an elephant and a crane. But these were no ordinary birds or mammals.
The 140 tonne mobile crane was needed to lift a two meter stone elephant in to its new position next to the elephant paddock.
Originally donated to London Zoo in 1992 by the major department store Libertys, the elephant had been imported to grace the shop floor of their Regent Street store. Unfortunately, on arrival it was found to be too heavy for the floor loading and a new home had to be found.
London Zoo was happy to take the statue and since then it has been a popular sight in its position outside the Casson Building. Refurbishment works are now being carried out on the Casson building and so it was decided to relocate the elephant one more time.
Movement of a structure of this size and weight is obviously a huge task but local haulier J Parrish & Son and crane hire company Winterlift came to the rescue and brought in one of their 140 tonne mobile cranes.
As Whipsnade’s projects manager Ian Gordon said: 'Given the proposed position of the statue this was a really complicated job, we are very grateful to both J Parish & Son and Winterlift for their help – this is a job we certainly couldn’t have done without them'.
