When the crate door opened and she first stepped down the ramp, she was a little unsteady on her feet. Everyone held their breath. Then she took a few more steps forward and sniffed the ground. We can’t know exactly what she was thinking, but maybe she sensed that Julie was close?

Julie had been out in the habitat and hanging around outside the barn before the arrival, curious about what was going on. As soon as she heard the truck (long before we did!) she disappeared out of sight, but the sand would certainly have smelled like her.

Within a few minutes (which felt like an eternity), Kariba picked up some fruit and took a long, deep drink of water. For the next few hours, we watched quietly as James, her carer, whom she has known and trusted for years, gave her words of encouragement. She is blind on her right side, and at one point she bumped her head on the gate with an enormous clunk! That didn’t put her off, though, and she was soon exploring the whole barn, smelling the air, alert but calm, munching through hay and picking watermelon out of the trough.

We want her to give her time to rest and regain her strength, so she'll stay in the barn for at least the next 24-48 hours before we open the gates to her habitat.

Watch the full video here 👇👇👇


As you can imagine, everyone is rather exhausted but in high spirits. We’re so happy to finally have her here after everything she has been through over the last six months, and so very grateful to all of you who helped make this possible.

We'll go quiet for the next couple of days whilst she adjusts to her new surroundings.

If you’d like to help with Kariba’s care, there’s a link to donate in our bio 💛:

www.pangeatrust.org/kariba

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