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Performing elephants retire in comfort

AP, HOHENWALD, TENNESSEE
Monday, Jul 07, 2003, Page 16

Only the tops of Sissy and Winkie's heads poke above the water at their swimming hole.

A minute passes, Winkie nudges Sissy and they both come up for air. Seconds later, Sissy goes under the water again, this time for about two minutes.

But she can't hold her breath in their contest much longer, so she sticks out her gray snout and sprays water over herself and pachyderm pal Winkie.

Sissy and Winkie, two adult female Asian elephants living with four others, spend most days together eating, playing and taking the occasional dip in the pond when the sun beams down on The Elephant Sanctuary.

Opened in 1995 by executive director Carol Buckley and facilities director Scott Blais, the nonprofit refuge outside this small town about 100km southwest of Nashville is the only one of its kind for Asian elephants in North America.

Think of it as a retirement home for elephant entertainers. The six -- Bunny, Jenny, Shirley, Sissy, Tarra and Winkie -- all came from performance backgrounds, mostly at small zoos and circuses. Some suffered malnutrition or accident and abuse injuries.

But here they are shielded from the stares of curious onlookers. The public's only chance to see these elephants is online through streaming webcams on the property.

"What we're striving to do is give them a place to feel free and feel comfortable expressing and being content with who they are," Blais said.

As Buckley says: "The elephants get to be elephants. Some of them have never had that chance."

In return Buckley, Blais, and other invited researchers get to study the habits and social interactions of the species.

Buckley, 49, began working with Blais, 30, more than a decade ago in Cambridge, Ontario. She hired Blais to be the keeper for Tarra, the elephant she purchased while studying exotic animals at California's Moorpark College.

The two are clearly beloved at the 89-hectare sanctuary. As they walk along the animal trails, each elephant acknowledges the humans with body language, postures and sounds. They ask for a pat on the leg or sometimes to be left alone for the day.

The sanctuary currently can accommodate up to a dozen elephants, and Tina, a 33-year-old Asian elephant, arrives from Vancouver in August.

But the sanctuary is poised to get even bigger. The purchase of another 1,000 hectares will allow as many as 100 pachyderms and create a separate refuge for African elephants.

"We could stay how we are ... but we felt strongly that we would be handicapping the elephants' recovery and that if we were really going to learn as much as we can, we needed more land," Buckley said. "Their need to have a vast space to migrate through is important."

Several zoos and wildlife refuges have inquired about the African addition, and three elephants -- Tangy and Zula from The Parks at Chehaw in Albany, Georgia, and Flora from Circus Flora in St. Louis -- will arrive when the first phase of the project is finished by October.

"The whole thing with the expansion began with the needs for our existing elephants, recognizing that we could accommodate their needs, and at the same time be able to accommodate many, many more elephants -- which is great because the family grows," Buckley said.

The six elephants indeed form a kind of blended family, playing the roles they would have in the wild as leader, parent, child and revered elder.

Shirley, age 56, has become a protective adopted mother to Jenny.

When Shirley first arrived in 1999, Jenny seemed to recognize her immediately although there is no bloodline connection between the two former circus animals.

Buckley's research discovered the two had a link dating back 27 years. When Jenny was 6, she spent several weeks with Shirley before being shipped elsewhere. They resumed their old relationship quickly.

"Shirley is the doting mom, and Jenny is the big baby," Buckley said. "She's reverted, she does baby behavior, baby talk, baby everything and all she has to do is go `Mom!' and Shirley will come tearing across the pasture to make sure everything's OK."

The death of Barbara in 2001 at 35 also helped forge the group into a family.

Barbara was group leader before Shirley, and during her final months each elephant spent at least a day alone with her, Blais said.

"Elephants show an incredible grieving and mourning process when a group member dies," said Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado-Boulder biology professor and expert in animal emotions. "They'll surround the bones, and almost mope around. There's a definite change in demeanor and posture."

Tarra, 29, took the death hard. She stayed at Barbara's grave for nearly 48 hours after the burial, and she and Bunny, 51, still visit it occasionally, Buckley said.

Experts say elephants' social skills are extremely refined and captivity can cause anti-social behavior by depriving the animals of companionship and the ability to roam.

"Typically what you'll see is animals in captivity are more distressed," Bekoff said. "Captive animals are more raw, and you won't see as much free-ranging joy."

But the sanctuary gives the elephants every opportunity to live without demands."We're all about giving the elephants their lives back," Blais said.

On the Net:

The Elephant Sanctuary: http://www.elephants.com/

Marc Bekoff's Web site: http://literati.net/Bekoff/
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