Hitachi donates an excavator to elephant sanctuary in Southwest France
Hitachi Construction Machinery is donating a used mini excavator to the first elephant sanctuary in Europe. The 70-acre rural site in southwest France will offer rehabilitation for both Asian and African elephants from zoos and circuses.
The ZX38U-5 excavator will play a vital part in preparing the facilities at Elephant Haven, which was founded in 2012. Scheduled for delivery in September of this year, it will initially be required to build fences, dig trenches and create mud pools. In addition, it will be used to excavate trees around a barn that will house the elephants, the first of which are due to arrive in 2018.
The short-tail swing model is also needed to maintain the sand boxes in the barn and make sand piles on which the elephants can sleep. It will also be used to move tree trunks and logs, and maintain streams and mud pools on the site.
Powerful and versatile
The ZX38U-5 excavator can be fitted with a range of attachments, which makes it suitable for the wide variety of tasks. Designed to be fast, powerful and fuel-efficient, it is also user-friendly and easy to maintain.
Founders of Elephant Haven, Tony Verhulst and Sofie Goetghebeur, are looking forward to its arrival on site. โAs a non-profit organisation, we depend on donations and sponsorship, and hugely appreciate the generosity of organisations such as HCME,โ says Sofie. โThe excavator will be used for several purposes, both in the short and long term โย itโs an essential part of our project.โ
As a growing number of European countries are banning wild animals in circuses, the demand for places at the sanctuary will increase over the coming years. โThere are more than 100 elephants in circuses across Europe,โ says Tony. โSending them back to their country of origin isnโt always possible. We want to offer them a place where they can spend the rest of their days in comfort โย an elephant can live to between 60 and 80 years old.โ
Currently being prepared at the HCME factory in Oosterhout, the ZX38U-5 will be a certified Premium Used machine when it is delivered to Elephant Haven.
More details on the machineโs journey and the projectโs progress is being updated on a dedicated blog.
