Wildlife refuge to take 30 ex-circus elephants
The remaining elephants at a former circus breeding facility in Polk City will soon be stomping around much more spacious environs in northeast Florida.
Walter Conservation plans to move about 30 Asian elephants from the former Feld Entertainment Center for Elephant Conservation beginning early next year. The nonprofit is building a 2,500-acre elephant habitat at its White Oak Conservation property in Nassau County, about 30 miles north of Jacksonville.
Walter Conservation agreed to acquire 35 elephants in 2016 after Feld Entertainment, a partner with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus for nearly 150 years, retired its elephant act. The organization completed the transaction in May, it said.
“We are taking on these elephants because we feel they deserve a nice, peaceful, beautifully natural retirement and we feel our place in northeast Florida, while its not wild Asia, it’s as close as we can come here in the States,” said Michelle Gadd, chief of conservation for the nonprofit. “So we feel these animals have just been loved by Americans for generations, and they’ve worked hard over the years and we’re happy to give them this next stage of their lives outdoors.”
One of the elephants, a 74-year-old female named Mysore, is too old to be moved, and Walter plans to keep a few other elderly pachyderms in Polk City as her companions. Another elephant has already been loaned to the Fort Worth Zoo, Gadd said.
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Conservation have been caring for the animals in Polk City since 2018, Gadd said. The organization bought the property from Feld this year.
The former Feld property covers about 200 acres, but elephants were restricted to about 15 acres, according to a 2016 report issued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA had repeatedly criticized Feld Entertainment for its treatment of elephants at the Polk City center, and Feld acknowledged that pressure from animal-rights groups factored into its decision to end its elephant act four years ago.
PETA applauded Wednesday’s announcement from Walter Conservation that construction has begun on the northeast Florida refuge. For years, the group reported on what it called cruel treatment of elephants under Feld’s ownership.
Rachel Mathews, PETA Foundation’s Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said trainers at the Polk City facility routinely used bull hooks, implements shaped like fireplace pokers, on elephants to reinforce commands.
“PETA has not been involved in these particular negotiations or the agreement, but PETA fought circus cruelty for decades, so we’re truly delighted to finally be able to close the book on Ringling’s abuse of elephants,” Mathews said. “The circus’s breeding compound in Polk City was truly a house of horrors.”
Mathews described elephants forced to give birth while chained. She said animals at the facility developed a host of health problems, including arthritis and tuberculosis.
“So finally we’re just thrilled that the elephants will be able to roam thousands of acres at White Oak and they will never suffer in chains or bull hooks again,” Mathews said.
White Oak, created in 1983 and acquired in 2013 by philanthropists Mark and Kimbra Walter, covers about 17,000 acres bordering the St. Marys River. The refuge is already populated by such exotic species as okapi, cheetah, giraffes, rhinoceroses and bongo antelopes. Gadd said the 2,500-acre elephant area will include nine interconnected sections that can be closed off to separate herds. The habitat will contain 11 man-made water holes among the undisturbed forest and three barns for shelter and veterinary use.
“Within these nine areas, there’s a full suite of northeast Florida natural vegetation,” Gadd said. “So the elephants will be able to choose where they want to spend their days. For many of these animals, this will be their first time foraging for their own food. This will be their first time making their own choices about which grasses to eat and which tree branches they prefer. And this will be, for many of them, their first time out in nature with a chance to watch birds or come across a turtle or a deer.”
Gadd said the youngest elephants at the Polk City property are 8 years old. In addition to Mysore, the oldest living elephant in the United States, the population includes several in their 50s and 60s. Gadd said Asian elephants can live to be 80 or so.
Nineteen of the elephants were born in the United States, Gadd said.
Walter Conservation has changed the way the elephants are treated since installing its staff at the Polk City site, Gadd said. The trainers have shifted from free contact, in which a trainer or handler is in the same space as the animal, to protected contact, the standard endorsed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Handlers remain in a separate space and encourage the elephants only in behaviors necessary for management or veterinary purposes, using food as a behavioral reward, Gadd said. Though some of the elephants had injuries and illnesses typical of pachyderms in captivity, she said they seem mentally healthy.
“When I’ve been to see them, I was favorably impressed by how eager they were to come over and see me,” Gadd said. “They are pretty outgoing and eager to have human interaction, for better or worse. As a stranger coming to see them for the first time, I was really surprised that they were super interested in coming to see me.”
Walter Conservation bought the specially designed tractor-trailers that Feld used to transport the elephants to circuses, Gadd said. The organization will use those trucks to haul the animals away, moving elephants together in socially bonded groups, she said.
White Oak Conservation allows public tours on vans and trolleys. Gadd said the management hasn’t decided yet if human visitors will eventually be able to glimpse the elephants after they arrive.
“Whatever the visitor experience will be, our goal is to minimize the disturbance to the elephants,” Gadd said. “Definitely for 2021, we expect just to let them settle in.”