CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — A giraffe named Benito began a 50-hour road trip Monday to leave the cold and loneliness of Mexico’s northern border city of Ciudad Juárez behind and find warmth in his new home 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away – and maybe a mate – to be found (1,200 miles) further south.

A campaign by animal rights activists got the four-year-old giraffe transferred to a zoo in the state of Puebla in central Mexico, where she can join a group of resident giraffes and enjoy a more favorable climate.

It was a long and lonely road for Benito. Out of jealousy, he had to leave his home in a zoo in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa; Last year he was taken to a municipal park in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, to live a life alone.

As temperatures in Ciudad Juárez dropped to 4 degrees Celsius on Monday, Benito set off in a box strapped to the back of a flatbed truck. He’s a big load, about 16 feet (meters) tall, and the roof of his box can be lowered to pass under bridges.

The animal’s head protrudes through the top of the large wooden and metal box, but a frame allows Benito to be covered with a tarp, protecting him from cold, wind and rain, as well as noise and the sight of the countryside rushing by.

Late Sunday, residents in Ciudad Juárez gathered to say goodbye as a crane lifted the container containing the giraffe onto the truck in preparation for the journey. “We love you, Benito,” some of them shouted.

“We are a little sad to see him go. But it also gives us great joy…The weather conditions are not suitable for him,” said Flor Ortega, a 23-year-old who said she has spent her entire life visiting Modesto, another giraffe previously living in the area for two decades Zoo was due to die in 2022. Benito arrived last May.

Benito is being transported across Mexico to Africam Safari Park in the central state of Puebla, where minimum temperatures are about 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than Ciudad Juárez.

More importantly, Benito will finally find a mate: there will be three female giraffes in his new home.

Environmental groups had voiced strong complaints about the conditions Benito was subjected to at the city’s Central Park zoo in Ciudad Juarez, where the weather is brutally hot in summer and temperatures plummet in winter.

Benito originally came from a zoo in the much more temperate climate of Sinaloa, a state on Mexico’s northern Pacific coast. Benito couldn’t stay there with the other two giraffes because they were a couple and the keepers feared the male would become territorial and attack the younger Benito.

So it was donated to Ciudad Juárez. In summer he had little shade in his 0.2 hectare enclosure; Photos showed him ducking under a small, round sun canopy in the summer. In winter, ice sometimes formed in the enclosure’s pond. There were few trees for him to nibble on.

At Africam Safari Park, the giraffes live in a much larger space that is more similar to their natural habitat. Visitors drive through the park in all-terrain vehicles to observe animals like on a safari.

The container specially designed to transport Benito is more than five meters high. The giraffe was allowed to familiarize itself with it over the weekend, said Frank Carlos Camacho, the director of Africam Safari Park.

In a video update posted Monday from the truck’s cab about 10 hours after the trip began, Camacho said, “So far everything is going perfectly…the giraffe is doing very well.”

The container contains straw, alfalfa, water and vegetables. Electronic devices monitor temperature and even allow technicians to talk to the animal.

Outside, Benito is escorted by a convoy of police, environmental officials and the National Guard.

In his new home, it will almost be as if life is starting over for him, said Camacho. “He’s ready to be a giraffe,” he said. “It will soon multiply and help protect this wonderful species.”

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Associated Press writer Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.