African Elephant

African Elephant
14-07-2007

Is it true that there's an african elephant going round with a circus in N.Z.?

Anyone seen it?

15-07-2007

I think its an Asian elephant. I've seen it from the road in passing (sometimes the circus is in a park near where I travel to town) but of course never been to see it up close -- I don't like circuses. Its a quite old elephant I think. The circus is the only one in NZ using "wild" animals (as well as the elephant, also some monkeys and maybe a lion or two?), apart for the Lion Man's "zoo", and I believe they aren't allowed to replace or get new animals, so they are just travelling round with them while they still can.

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15-07-2007

no ara u are right, there is a female african elephant in a new zealndf travelling circus, she is named jumbo and in late 20's

do a forum search on her, she has been discussed numerous times on this site

15-07-2007

and is or was for sale.

15-07-2007

fancy, I learn something new every day. I had just assumed it would be an Asian elephant. Pretty sorry-looking excuse for an African elephant called Jumbo. Poor wee thing...

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16-07-2007

now be nice.

i feel very sorry for this animal. the likelihood that she will ever see another of her species is very slim. and to top it off she is still relatively young. obviously we have all hoped that she ends up at dubbo, where the only other african elephants are , but i see that as very unlikely.

her best bet is that she moves to auckland. they have no elephant-breeding asipirations it seems and being a circus animal she is obviously easily handled, in line with aucklands animals. asian elephants might not be quite the same as her own species, but they will provide better compantionship than only humans nonetheless. in addition there is a bit of an age gap between aucklands two elephants. so potentially the younger cow might live quite a while longer than the older one. jumbo is of comparable age to kashin so their could be at least some form of a resolution there...

16-07-2007

When I lived in NZ for a while in the early 90's there was a travelling circus with an Asian elephant cow. I saw it more than once in different places, fairly closeup from the road and it was definately an Asian. I wonder if that one is still 'on the road'?

17-07-2007

i'm pretty sure i read that the african cow "was the only circus elephant in NZ" indeed, if true she is also the only african elephant and one of just 3 elephants in the entire country..

however its very hard keeping track of circus elephants - many of us here on the forum have tried to work out the how many exist in australia without much success (we have two definates and thats about it...)

no doubt like the rest of you i am anti-animals, patricuarly exotics, in circus'. even if you set aside the generally appaling track record with care, its bloody dangerous. how zoos in this day and age in a country like australia continue to be issued permits to keep big cats, monkeys and elephants i just don't know...

17-07-2007

If the animal welfare groups were fair dinkum about helping animals and not just a bunch of sanctimonious critics, they would allocate some of their funds towards buying this little elephant and send her to either Auckland or Dubbo.

18-07-2007

I'm pretty sure Circuses in UK have nowadays phased out elephants(and all wild animals) totally. Some of the elephants transferred to Safari Parks, essentially those run by the circus family Chipperfield. Chipperfields got a bad name some years ago over the mistreatment of elephants after having been privately filmed beating an elephant( an African bull) and a chimpanzee at a circus' winter quarters. This became famous as the 'Chipperfield Cruelty Case'. The chimp was rehomed to a chimpanze rescue centre while the elephant(Tembo) is now a breeding male at Colchester Zoo(happier times for both) Even Longleat Safari park no longer keeps elephants now- it used to be run by the Chipperfields, not sure if that's still the case.

But there's a bizarre case of a single Asian elephant(female) still living in an Indian Monastery in South Wales. A good zoo should really take her to join a herd but it seems the monks can't legally be forced to part with her .

Jumbo
25-08-2007

I am curious as to how many people on this forum would be willing to put their name to a petition type thing to request the federal government make an exception on Jumbo to bring her to Australia to live out her retirement, either with the Africans at dubbo, by herself on a larger property or with retired Asians. Please let me know what you think. I believe that putting her in with the Africans at dubbo might actually be a bit cruel. they are considerably older and after giving her a taste of company they will pass on leaving her devastated. She has had very little elephant contact and from what I have seen of her she considers humans to be her herd. If there was anywhere in Australia that was much bigger and much better than the circus who would be willing to put their names to getting her over here.

25-08-2007

what is there a movement proposed for her that the govt are stopping, or is it a petition for the owner to sell?

25-08-2007

neither... nobody has applied for an import permit and the owner decided to sell her in i think november last year. I know other international circuses have expressed an interest. no Aust Zoos want to pay to have her brought over her and if there was an import application made it would most likely be refused due to her being a solitary elephant. But the zoos might consider taking her if she is donated....

25-08-2007

the closest place to jumbo with african elephants, as we all know is dubbo. its also a good zoo, with lots of space. logic dictates that would be the be the ideal.

another equally ideal scenario, though it may (or may not) be easier, is for her to end up at another african elephant-keeping zoo of equal standard overseas.

if she can't be offered that then you would have to settle for asians as company. this is not usually something i'm too fond of, but plenty of zoos have examples of mixed-species elephant bonding. surely its better than being alone.

in that case i would like auckland to take her. they obviously are never going to breed their asians and i'm sure their resident elephants wouldn't mind the company.

but really, what would be the benifit of bringing this animal to australia if she was not to have company? she may as well remain in NZ as far as i'm concered.

26-08-2007

Surely it is better for her to be able to retire comfortably at a young age rather than spend the rest of her 50 odd yeasr travelling New Zealand. As far as I know only other circuses have expressed interest, she only knows human contact so surely this will be enough atleast for a while until three asians can be obtained.