MAYAGÜEZ, Puerto Rico — Mundi, the Puerto Rico zoo's prized African elephant, was scheduled to board a cargo jet to her new home at a sprawling elephant refuge in southern Georgia. But there was a problem. She was afraid to enter the massive transport crate in which she'd soon be making the trip.
The Georgia refuge's founder, Carol Buckley, had arrived on the island a week earlier to get Mundi comfortable with the cage, and at first had no trouble coaxing her in with her favorite foods. But now, two days before the May 12 flight meant to ferry her to a better life, something had made Mundi skittish. She'd enter the crate for only a minute or two before retreating back into the small fenced yard where she'd been on exhibit for 35 years.
