英動物園爲二戰倖存小象尋找曾經主人

A kind-hearted homeowner kept a baby elephant in her back yard for months during the Second World War because zookeepers feared the animal would be killed in a bombing raid, it has been revealed.

Sheila lived at Belfast Zoo until she was moved to her unusual home in 1941 as the city underwent the so-called Belfast Blitz.

She was one of the lucky ones at the zoo, in the north of the city.

The Ministry of Public Security ordered 23 zoo animals to be killed in case they got free and attacked people, including a tiger, a black bear, a lynx, a hyena, two polar bears and six wolves.

But instead of meeting the same fate, Sheila was walked down the road by keepers to a red-brick house on the Whitewell Road where a woman gave her sanctuary in her back yard for several months until the bombing was over.

Now, as part of the zoo's 75th anniversary, managers are trying to identify the woman who gave the elephant its wartime sanctuary, known only as "the elephant angel".

All it has to go on are a couple of grainy black and white photographs of two women sitting on a garden seat watching Sheila drinking out of a tin bucket beside the back door of the house.

Zoo manager Mark Challis said: "The care provided by our mystery lady is unique to zoo history and we would like to make contact with her family and properly document this gap in our past."

Happily Sheila went on to survive the war, living another 25 years until her death at the zoo in 1966.

據報道，二戰期間一位好心的房主曾在自家後院收養了一隻幼象達數月之久，這主要是因爲動物園管理者擔心小象會在炸彈襲擊中遭到不測。

由於1941年貝爾法斯特閃電戰爆發，這隻名叫“希拉”的小象被轉移至一個平常人家的後院，此前它一直生活在貝爾法斯特動物園。

希拉是位於城北的這家動物園的“倖存者”之一。

英國公共安全部曾下令“處死”貝爾法斯特動物園的23只動物以免它們在戰亂中逃散並攻擊人羣，被捕殺的動物包括一隻老虎、一頭黑熊、一隻山貓、一隻土狼、兩隻北極熊和六隻狼。

然而希拉卻沒有遭到這樣的厄運，它被動物園管理員帶到了位於懷特維爾路的一個紅磚房裏，這所房子的女主人在她家後院爲希拉提供庇所數月之久，直到轟炸結束。

而今，作爲該動物園建園75週年紀念活動的一部分，動物園的管理人員試圖找到爲小象提供“戰時庇護”的那位“大象天使”。

而他們僅有的只是幾張模糊不清的黑白照片，照片上有兩個女人坐在院子裏的長椅上，看着希拉從後門旁的一隻鐵桶裏吸水喝。

動物園經理馬克•查理斯說：“這位神祕女士對於小象的照料在動物園歷史上具有特殊意義，我們想與她的家人取得聯繫，填補這段歷史空白。

幸運的是，希拉在戰爭中存活了下來，並繼續在這家動物園生活了25年之久，直到1966年在此去世。