The case of the mysterious Connecticut Avenue motorcade

If you’ve lived in DC long enough, you’ve seen at least one motorcade. And if you’ve lived here as long as we have, you’ve seen dozens. They seem less remarkable over time. But the one we spotted Sunday night stood out.

It was the brief blare of a siren that got our attention as we walked south on Connecticut Avenue a little after 8:30 p.m. A police SUV, with lights flashing, was approaching the light at Albemarle Street. It was followed by another police SUV, then by a flatbed truck. Two large, white metal crates were strapped to the bed. Behind the truck was an unmarked white van, and that was followed by two more SUVs with prominent “POLICE” markings on their sides.

What was it? We asked Twitter. And more importantly, we asked Popville Twitter, the fount of all strange DC knowledge.

Saw an oddity tonight not unlike the WMATA money train: four police SUVs (MPD?) escorting a flatbed truck with two large, white crates strapped to the back, and an unmarked white van. They were driving south on Connecticut Ave. So… what was in those crates? @PoPville

— Forest Hills Connection (@foresthillsnews) November 7, 2022

What was in those crates? The experiments of a rogue geneticist? The discoveries of an adventurous archaeologist?

https://t.co/A82UrvXyoH pic.twitter.com/ESFbInofJ9

— Riley Roberts (@rileylroberts) November 7, 2022

Then, a couple of sharp-eyed readers connected our sighting with two new arrivals at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

Asian elephants Nhi Linh (left) and Trong Nhi (right) in their habitat at the Rotterdam Zoo Oct. 13. They arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., Nov. 6. (Rotterdam Zoo photo)

Maybe they were the zoo’s new elephants! They arrived on a truck yesterday evening. https://t.co/KaobuNIS0M

— Autumn H (@autumnsam) November 7, 2022

The timing tracks: DCist reports two Asian elephants arrived at the zoo around 8:45 p.m. Sunday after a 4,000-mile journey from the Rotterdam zoo. The words “elephant transport crates” in the article jumped out at us. Google revealed information on what a trans-Atlantic journey would entail, including a chase vehicle (like that white van?) carrying team of veterinarians and zookeepers monitoring the elephants’ conditions via security cameras.

The zoo’s press release also contains details of the elephants’ long journey.

Before their departure, the elephants entered their travel crates, which were well-supplied with in-flight snacks, including hay and browse (leafy branches). An expert animal care team–including NZCBI veterinarian James Steeil and three staff from Rotterdam Zoo–monitored the elephants during their travel to ensure they were doing well. Throughout the journey, the team provided Trong Nhi and Nhi Linh with water. From Rotterdam, they traveled to Liège, Belgium, and boarded a 3,703-mile trans-Atlantic flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. NZCBI staff met the elephants and their animal care team in New York and escorted them 238 miles to Washington, D.C.

Asian elephants Nhi Linh (left) and Trong Nhi (right) explore their enclosure outside the Elephant Barn. (photo by Robbie Clark, courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

The newcomers are a mom and daughter, and after a quarantine period, they will get acquainted with the rest of the National Zoo’s Asian elephant herd. Keepers hope they’ll hit it off with the resident bull elephant and produce the zoo’s first baby elephants in 20 years. If all goes well in the short-term, we’ll get to meet them around this time next month.

(Cover image: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s motorcade leaving Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., 2010. (photo by A1C Perry Aston via Wikimedia Commons)