Found a discussion in the bored/depressed animal thread....I though I would give it its own thread to continue the discussion. By my records, here are the oldest elephants in North America: NAME DOB LOCATION Taj 1940 Vallejo, CA (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom) Mary 1946 Central Florida Zoo, Sanford, FL Barbara 1947 Carson & Barnes Circus Ambika 1948 National Zoo Minnie 1948 Carson & Barnes Circus Shirley 1948 Hohenwald, TN (Elephant Sanctuary) Sunita 1949 San Diego Wild Animal Park, Escondido, CA Minyahk 1949 Dickerson Park Zoo, Springfield, MO Ellen 1950 Little Rock Zoo, AR Gunda 1950 Tulsa Zoo, OK Lutzi 1950 Ringling Bros Circus Mysore 1950 Ringling Bros Circus All above are Asian elephants. The oldest African Elephant in North America, that I could find was Hydari, born 1960, at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, UT.
That's quite sad that 4 of the oldest elephants are all involved with circuses...hopefully they have been retired from performing insane tricks for the public.
But zoo elephants don't always have to wear silly clothes, stand on one leg, and occasionally dodge fire-eating jugglers. However, I'm sure that they get much more exercise than the vast majority of zoo elephants.
Circuses don't do enrichment They completely torture elephants. If any of you have seen the one video of the elephant being beaten in the circus its very sad. Zoos don't beat elephants at all, instead they use a positive reinforcement to teach elephant new behaviors. Circuses use a negative reinforcement, so when the elephant does not do the desires behavior it is beaten with an ankus of jabbed with an electrical prod. Zoos use ankus', however they don't use them to harm the elephant in any way. It is just use as a training tool that is not jabbed into the elephant at all
BlackRhino it might be best if you do some more research on the topic of elephants in zoos and circuses before posting a statement like that...especially if you want to work with pachyderms in the future...trust me, circuses use plently of enrichment and remember it is often just one person that makes such a negative impact that anti-captive elephant groups use to publicize their campaigns.
This picture makes me pretty leery of the kind of "enrichment" circuses provide: http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9659/hpim9866er2.jpg I was told it was done by a circus in India.
If you mean the stars on the back, it's done by logging camps in India to show they own the animals. Winthida in Amsterdam's Artis Zoo is one such old logger and she also sports a star on her backside. I don't like it neither, but it's not a circus...
