英动物园为二战幸存小象寻找曾经主人

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.

据报道，二战期间一位好心的房主曾在自家后院收养了一只幼象达数月之久，这主要是因为动物园管理者担心小象会在炸弹袭击中遭到不测。

由于1941年贝尔法斯特闪电战爆发，这只名叫“希拉”的小象被转移至一个平常人家的后院，此前它一直生活在贝尔法斯特动物园。

希拉是位于城北的这家动物园的“幸存者”之一。

英国公共安全部曾下令“处死”贝尔法斯特动物园的23只动物以免它们在战乱中逃散并攻击人群，被捕杀的动物包括一只老虎、一头黑熊、一只山猫、一只土狼、两只北极熊和六只狼。

然而希拉却没有遭到这样的厄运，它被动物园管理员带到了位于怀特维尔路的一个红砖房里，这所房子的女主人在她家后院为希拉提供庇所数月之久，直到轰炸结束。

而今，作为该动物园建园75周年纪念活动的一部分，动物园的管理人员试图找到为小象提供“战时庇护”的那位“大象天使”。

而他们仅有的只是几张模糊不清的黑白照片，照片上有两个女人坐在院子里的长椅上，看着希拉从后门旁的一只铁桶里吸水喝。

动物园经理马克．查理斯说：“这位神秘女士对于小象的照料在动物园历史上具有特殊意义，我们想与她的家人取得联系，填补这段历史空白。

幸运的是，希拉在战争中存活了下来，并继续在这家动物园生活了25年之久，直到1966年在此去世。