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Kashin the elephant - Source: ONE News -
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Auckland Zoo officials are wading through red tape to try to find a replacement for Kashin the elephant, who died earlier this week .
After grieving Kashin's death, attention at the zoo is now turning to how her death will affect Burma, the zoo's other elephant.
Burma and Kashin have been together for 20 years and one of her keepers, Rob Caine, says Burma will be very upset.
"She will be absolutely distraught because her whole world has just suddenly disappeared. For elephants, relationships are their life," says Caine, who looked after Burma when she first arrived in 1990.
The zoo is now desperate to fill the void created by Kashin's death, but finding a new elephant is a difficult process due to cost and biosecurity issues.
At the moment importing an elephant to New Zealand is prohibited amid concerns about diseases.
Bringing in a new elephant is a process that can take up to two years, but the Ministry of Agriculture has hinted it could fast-track the process down to 14 months.
Rochelle Linwood from Biosecurity NZ says the best case scenario would be for the zoo to come to the agency with a proposal for an elephant thay have identified that they want to import, ideally from a country with a reasonably clean health status.
Many have suggested Jimbo, New Zealand's only circus elephant, be moved to Auckland Zoo, but that cannot happen, as Jimbo is an African elephant and Burma is Asian and the zoo does not mix species.
The zoo re-opened its gates on Wednesday and the public will get a chance to remember Kashin at the zoo's planned memorial day on Sunday.
