Pbl @ Wilkes

Reality: Video footage taken between 2001 and 2006 of Ringling trainers and handlers shows that elephants were aggressively hooked, lame elephants were forced to perform and travel, and a trainer inflicted a bloody bullhook wound behind an elephant’s ear flap. Former Ringling employees that left the circus in 2006 and 2007 describe violent beatings as well as the routine abuse of elephants, horses, camels, and zebras.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee is the largest natural habitat refuge in the United States, according to information on the organization website. Elephants who have retired from circuses and zoos may find a home on the 2700 acre habitat with natural environments for Asian and African elephants.

Resident elephants are not required to entertain or perform, but they get to live out their golden years living like elephants.

In the article, Carol Buckley at the Elephant Sanctuary, reported that when a resident elephant was introduced to a newcomer the two girls, Jenny and Shirley, could hardly contain their excitement at seeing each other. It turned out that the two had been in the same traveling circus 23 years earlier. Researchers believe that their remarkable power of recall is how elephants survive. Matriarch elephants hold a store of social knowledge that their families rely on to survive. Elephants have high intelligence, right up there with dolphins, apes and human beings. According to research these are the only mammals that can recognize their reflections in the mirror.

Behavior Elephants form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal family groups of related females called a herd. The herd is led by the oldest and often largest female in the herd, called a matriarch. Herds consist of 8-100 individuals depending on terrain and family size. When a calf is born, it is raised and protected by the whole matriarchal herd. Males leave the family unit between the ages of 12-15 and may lead solitary lives or live temporarily with other males. Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years. It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past. They also display signs of grief, joy, anger and play. Recent discoveries have shown that elephants can communicate over long distances by producing a sub-sonic rumble that can travel over the ground faster than sound through air. Other elephants receive the messages through the sensitive skin on their feet and trunks. It is believed that this is how potential mates and social groups communicate.