Toronto elephants parked in crates, awaiting journey to U.S.

The Toronto Zoo’s elephants have been loaded into the crates they will ride in during their move to a California wildlife sanctuary, though they had yet to depart on their long-awaited journey by supper-hour on Thursday.

The fate of Thika, Toka and Iringa, the zoo’s three remaining elephants, was up in the air for much of the past 2½ years.

In 2011, the decision was made to "phase out" the zoo’s elephant program, though a series of ongoing squabbles involving zoo staff, city councillors and animal advocates delayed their departure.

In the end, it was decided to move the elephants to a new home in a warmer climate.

For more than a year, trainers have been working with the elephants to prepare them for their move, so that the pachyderms would feel comfortable in their crates when being transported.

The president of the union representing zoo workers told reporters on Thursday that the elephants were successfully moved into their crates.

In the morning, it was also announced that a deal was reached to allow a pair of zookeepers to accompany the elephants to California.

But as of 5 p.m. on Thursday, the elephants have yet to be moved onto the trucks that will take them south.

The CBC’s Aarti Pole reported that "a misunderstanding" between the groups moving the elephants and the zoo held up the process by five hours on Thursday.

Zoocheck Canada, a national watchdog group, said that a call by zoo management to have an inspection done by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was a last-ditch effort to try to keep the elephants in Toronto.

But the zoo said the CFIA inspection was always going to happen, is proper procedure and should not have been a surprise.

Elephants have been a part of the zoo since it first opened in 1974.

But over time, the elephants’ numbers dwindled to the point where just three remained. Those are the same three elephants scheduled to be heading south on Thursday.