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Bachelor elephant finds long-distance love

(West China Metropolitan News)
Updated: 2007-02-12 10:48

A male elephant in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, traveled thousands of miles to marry a female elephant in Sichuan Province recently.

Xing Xing, a 10-year-old male elephant at Nanning Zoo, was old enough to marry, but did not have a mate. The zoo posted advertisements looking for one on the websites of other zoos and finally received a response from the Bifengxia Zoo in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, which had an adult female elephant in need of a spouse.

Because Sichuan is much colder than Nanning, Nanning Zoo prepared three quilts for Xing Xing to wear during his trek to Sichuan. Upon his arrival at Bifengxia Zoo, however, Xing Xing did not want to get off the truck. Zoo keepers had to bring his bride-to-be, Guo Za, to meet him.

As soon as he laid eyes on Guo Za, Xing Xing got off the truck and went to straight to the den zoo keepers had prepared for them.