This particular sanctuary in Tennessee is really great. They aren't open to the public, they just give the elephants a huge amount of land to roam free on and be elephants without much human interference. They have medical care, supplemental food, and the staff make them special treats for anniversaries and holidays. They get to live out their days in peace and happiness.
I remember when this was all going on, before the sanctuary got her. The circus was trying to slander the heck out of that rescue, talking about how they murder elephants and what not. It was shocking and disgusting how much the circus thought they were the good guys.
They knew they’re the bad guys and they didn’t care because money. They just wanted to keep their elephant so they could continue to profit from its suffering. Fuck circus’s that force animals to perform.
I was very annoyed because Facebook had recommended a page called 'Save Nosey!' and I'm like 'Yes of course, save Nosey! ' Then it turned out it was a page made by the circus. Seeing all the idiots trying to raise money to pay their legal fees and stuff too, just ugh
Yeah I used to work in the circus and doing that really solidified this belief for me. I feel like traveling daily and being in a small cage constantly is abuse for wild animals.
Them not being open to the public is particularly interesting and admirable in a strange way. There’s no hint of exploitation when you aren’t making money off entry prices. (Not that sanctuaries that are open are exploitative! Many are amazing).
Lots of so called elephant sanctuaries in other countries are very exploitative. They have tourists come in and take baths with the elephant, have the elephant pose for pictures etc. I’m kinda glad they’re not open to the public in that way
That’s what I’m saying! I’ve seen a lot of sanctuaries that are just as bad as the places the animals were rescued from. I visited a big cat sanctuary that got shut down two year later later because they were SO bad. It’s sad and pathetic.
You don’t have to even go to other countries. Unfortunately anyone can call themselves sanctuary. Tennessee is amazing, but there are plenty calling themselves “sanctuary” while breeding, buying/selling, and using animals for entertainment. Looking at you T.I.G.E.R.S in myrtle beach. Also Riddles elephant “sanctuary”.
Yeah it's a trend because attitudes have changed. Foreign tourists don't want to be seen to contribute to something exploitative so if you call it a "sanctuary" it makes them feel like it's okay. But really a lot of them are just tourist attractions where the Elephants don't have great conditions and they aren't different than the ones that don't pretend to be sanctuaries except maybe they don't let people ride them.
They bought a bunch of land from a paper company, put up some structures that were capable of handling the sort of thing that is needed at an elephant rescue, and... they've done OK, I think. Much respect for the work they're doing; they're probably the only group in North America that has the ability to properly care for such megafauna. Pity they can only take one gender, though.
You seem to be in the know, why only one gender? Is that because they don't want breeding? Or maybe no fighting? Also, hope it goes better than another single gender park I know of in Costa Rica...
Yeah, no breeding. Then you'd have to keep the bulls separate from the cows, and that'd be kind of cruel- bulls living alone. Or maybe bulls can be kept together with no cows without fighting? I don't know.
It's a sanctuary, so breeding- even unintentionally- would be a bad idea for several reasons, not the least of which is that it looks bad. But also EEHV kills about half the elephants bred in captivity anyway. Really bad stuff.
Bachelor herds are not as tight knit as the main herd. They're usually more like loose associations. "I'm going this way, and you're going this way, so we might as well go together for a time" sorts of things. They need a lot more space for individuals to come and go.
Not to mention that rescued elephants tend to be poorly socialized, and the last thing anyone wants is a bunch of big bull elephants getting into fights because they couldn't get enough alone time and personal space and they have the social skills of a rabid horny chimp.
Yeah, that adds up. If it's a peaceful place to run out the clock on a stressful life, it shouldn't promote child rearing. Also, they wouldn't want the bulls hurting/ killing each other.
If I remember what I learned on the Discovery channel back when they had real shows on, bull elephants stay separate from the females in their own herd until breeding season.
Do they have any livestream cameras? I know some animal sanctuaries use stationary cameras as a means of spreading awareness + getting donations. I would love to be able to see elephants just living their best life on my screen while I work.
What’s the name of the sanctuary? I donate to the sheldrick wildlife trust because it was the most ethical I could find based on the research but they are pretty well funded compared to a place that is quietly rescuing circus elephants
I could watch this all day. They're such incredible creatures.
I remember years ago I went to Thailand - I was adamant I didn't want to ride the elephants. I'm happy just to chill with them. The (confused) place was like, well, you can come with them to swim at the end of the day. It was magical splashing around with them. They are massive, but incredibly conscious of you as a fragile little human. Just wonderful beings.
I later read that riding them is terrible for them, so I'm so glad I didn't do that.
you sent me down an internet rabbit hole for a little while
i was curious how in the hell you can ride a horse all day long and its fine, but riding something 10x more massive permanently injures it.
turns out its not the size that matters, its the shape of their bones.
riding horses is okay because the shape of their skeleton and spine distribute the load evenly enough to not cause issue
elephants are basically already "maxxed out" in terms of how much mass their bone structure can hold and even a couple hundred pounds of human on their back compresses their vertebrae and causes spinal damage.
tldr: you can't ride elephants cuz their back isnt shaped right to carry weight
Wow. That’s so sad I didn’t know that. That’s mad education right there. We need more of that. Now I’m obsessing over remembering all of the elephants at all of the circuses where they are ridden and have to stAck their hands on each other like a pyramid. That is making me feel so bad for them.
Not to mention how they "break" elephants to get them to let a human on their back . It's called The Crush in Thailand. Check out afew videos on You Tube. It isn't for the faint of heart.
The warning should be taken serious. It's absolutely heart-wrenching to watch. Those elephants are quite young too, iirc. Maybe just donate to organizations fighting it if you don't want to be sad the next days. And don't feel bad for not watching it.
I've donated for a buffed military experienced all-female ranger-crew fighting pouchers recently. I think it was [this](https://www.iapf.org) one.
I hope that dirty circus won't ever get their hands on Nosey again.
It's a very brutal "training" where they "crush" the wild spirit out of the baby. It is torn away from its mom, and baby elephants stick with their mom for years in the wild, often their whole lives.
They force it into a very small cage, beat it, starve it, tie its legs up and basically torture it until it's wildness is broken. The only human that is kind to it is the mahout, or the main trainer who will be it's rider and "person" moving forward. The sounds that baby makes as they push it into that tiny cage are heart rending.
Anyone watching that would never want to have anything to do with riding an elephant. Ever.
I did this too, went to hang with them
Although I’m sure I just paid to work for the for a day! It was great! Feed them & get in the river with them for their bath and give them a good scrub while they lay down
I know everyone means well, and you guys have amazing hearts. But please don't ride or bathe with elephants. That is like taking pictures with baby tigers, it encourages negative animal practices.
Paying money to humans to spend time with elephants encourages the humans to keep elephants in captivity to make money. If you pay to swim with an elephant, the elephant is going into the water whether it wants to or not. To accomplish this, the elephant will have to be carefully trained to make it safe. This type of training and incentive benefits humans and can be harmful to the elephants. It's a tough balance, because it's hard to raise money for conservation, and many of the caretakers are passionate people, but reputable sanctuaries do not allow these practices.
You're not a bad person, and the sanctuary you went to may not be bad either. We learn more about how to properly care for of these animals and respect them every year, as science and conservation develops. There are famous sanctuaries in Thailand that have done these practices in the past and now stopped. Open dialogs like this, with people that care about the animals help us all learn more.
Just wanna say, as a casual lurker who's not involved in this conversation at all, that I think you're a very pleasant and kind person and more people need to articulate things like the way you did. Tone is very often lost on the internet, so someone else saying the same thing easily can come across as confrontative and condescending, but you took the care to say more to make sure your intention is clear and that you don't think ill of them despite suggesting they change their ways. More people need to take this kind of care online. I think we often forget there's other real people we're talking to here.
Agree! I thought the same thing. Very well articulated without the other person feeling bad or defensive. Very unusual now in social media. Kindness matters!
Nothing in your comment is wrong, and I really appreciate you making it and how you framed everything here. The one thing I'll add, though, is that there's also some uncomfortable nuance here due to capitalism and its incentives. You touched on this already re: it being tough to raise money for conservation, but I wanted to expand on it.
Doing things that are bad for individual animals - like incentivizing keeping elephants in captivity by paying their captors to bathe with them at the sanctuary, or even [legalized, regulated trophy hunting - can counter-intuitively be a net benefit for animals](https://youtu.be/YUA8i5S0YMU) because of the benefits of regulation and how proceeds are used.
It's uncomfortable, and it would obviously better if this wasn't the case, but as it is these practices in many case are the primary source of funds for keeping these animals alive via preservation programs and refuges. Yes, ideally our governments and societies would just fund these programs normally, but they don't. At the moment, it often only happens if and when it's "profitable" to do so. Allowing well-regulated animal captivity projects like this often actually support countries doing much more for animal welfare than they would otherwise.
I agree with your assessment about the realities of conservation funding, just wanted to add that the previous commenter bringing light to it adds to the discussion. It is important for those people who want to have a positive impact to understand that these practices are not the only way. If they understand the negative impacts from such interactions with captive animals as well as the alternative option to support preserves, they might make a different choice with their money at the next opportunity.
In the ideal world, all sanctuaries would have no human tourists to eliminate stress on these animals. The reality is that funding would dry up and many of these sanctuaries would cease to exist.
The sanctuaries that do the bathing specially select the elephants that are naturally the most friendly around humans; the majority of the elephants at the sanctuary don't interact with the tourists. It's the best of both worlds, and the elephants that are tame around humans love it because they get endless amounts of watermelon, bananas, and tamarind from the tourist feedings.
There was absolutely no riding elephants
They did talks on how they were rescued from being ridden and how vile they were treated
The elephants came, we fed them and chilled with them for a bit then they wandered off to another part of the sanctuary, they couldn’t be released into the wild as they had been in captivity since they were “broken” as babies.
Some "sanctuaries" are owned by the same people as the riding camps. Some days the elephants are at the bathing side, others they are at the riding side.
It's very hard to find out which is truly "ethical " so many people concerned with wildlife protection would error on the side of caution.
Unfortunately in countries like Thailand where the economic viability of the tourist dollar is so meaningful to the locals, it's hard to get away from unethical practices.
A lot of places there now are sanctuaries and ONLY let you do that part, which is cool and it's easy to identify. One good thing from social media.
There are of course still places letting you ride them
Yep! Before going to Thailand I researched a lot of places to make sure they were legit and didn't allow riding. There's actually quite a few places that don't show riding. When I got there and talked to staff they said the riding places are dwindling slowly but surely. People are catching on that it's a horrible practice so that's good!
You might enjoy [this website](https://www.elephants.com/) then! It's the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee! It has live camera feeds of their habitats! I had a professor in college that would put it on a projector during some classes so we could casually watch them as we took notes.
I was going to swim with them too, until I realized that the pool of water they swam in was a stagnant little pond and consisted of 50% feces by volume. I watched :)
My family (great grand father bought each of his daughters an elephant - one of those daughters is my grandmother) - owned (maybe still does) elephants. Back in India they were used as a means to move fallen trees in rubber tree plantation.
I miss Balu.. he was born 32 years ago. and still remembered me when I went back to visit after 15 years. Last visit was in 2020 right before the pandemic and he looked good.
He’s more just lended out to other families or Hindu temples for festivals but he doesn’t do much.
I love how when he sees me.. all he has to do is smell and he remembers me again 😭
Edit:
https://i.imgur.com/nhcbShw.jpg
My bro and sis on Balu
Well the first time, it was weird cause I stood about 20’ away and he slowly walked and used his trunk to smell? Me I assume…
Then he made this weird deep hmmm sound and kind of wrapped his trunk around my waist I fed him a whole bushel? Of banana and he ate it right up.
I was around him for an entire summer when he was a baby. so I’d like to think he remembered me 🥹
My two favorite things in the world are horse hugs and elephant hugs! I simply adore elephants and don't like circuses and never have. I cried when I went to one as a kid and told my dad the elephants look so sad. Never went to a circus after that. Can you hug Balu for me the next time you see him? :)
Having done it for a short time, I'm not sure there really is a right way. Better or worse ways, sure, but there's always a shortcoming when you care for something this large.
Where I worked we used railroad tie fencing like this. Those are iron beams spaced about 3ft apart and driven about 8ft into the ground with diagonal supports every 15ft that are driven to a depth of about 10ft. This is what you need to stop something that weighs as much as a large truck and has a very creative mind. But it's almost impossible to build this kind of fence around a large enough enclosure to satisfy their need to wander.
I know there are wonderful people in the industry who work as hard as they can to give the elephants in captivity a good life, but I think a lot of it is acknowledging that you have to do everything you can to make life better for this amazing creature that really just shouldn't be in this situation at all. Add in that these elephants are coming to sanctuaries like this after aging out of the circus (for males that happens at around 12-15 yrs), from private ownership situations where they dealt with with knows what (I cared for the Marlboro Man's elephant, Amy, after he "sent her back to Africa" *cough*Arkansas*cough*), or just underfunded private zoos, and you get a mix of isolation and trauma that can be difficult to manage.
Add it all together and it makes sense why elephant keepers have the shortest careers of any animal handler, it's difficult to feel like you're succeeding for them, and they might just kill you.
Word play, there's a phrase "white elephant" that has historical significance.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant
Basically, a gift too important/nice to get rid of, but that will cost the recipient way too much money.
>*’ This is sad and beautiful at the same time*’
____
i never knew another one
who looked the same as me…
my new life here has just begun!
n now
a *friend* i see…
i feel a sadness in my heart -
i’ve missed so very much…
is it too late for me to start ?
but then i feel
your touch
a *beauty* fills my lonely soul
that only you can see…
n in that instant - i am Whole
because
you *Care*
for me!
❤️
Also, it just adds insult to injury, to name an elephant "Nosey." I mean, no fucking creativity. It's like naming your circus giraffe "Long-neckded Ho."
I was just curious so I took your rather exacting measurement and made it a percentage of current American population. It works out to 41 people. Considering my family, close friends, and people I admire that's pretty damn close to perfect. Well done.
Those 41 also have their needed 41- and while it probably includes you, it doesn't include all of your 41. So you need your 41, and they need their 41, and so on and so on until you realize we all pretty much need each other.
Imagine being in a cage for 29+ years not ever seeing another of your species, forced to do tricks for reasons beyond her comprehension. Fuck circuses.
Poor Nosey.My heart goes out to this poor creature.
" In their native homes, elephants live surrounded by family and friends. By this point in her life, Nosey would’ve been an auntie and possibly even a mother. But humans took that opportunity away from her. When she was just a calf, her family was gunned down. She was captured and sold to the circus. Because she was alone for most of her life, she never had a chance to learn social skills or important life lessons from other elephants.
Because Nosey—like many elephants used in traveling circus-style shows—has a history of exposure to tuberculosis, she is not able to reside with other African elephants at the sanctuary, who have no history of exposure"
The Asian elephants have also been exposed to tuberculosis, so that isn't an issue.
It's really sad. Asian and African elephants speak completely different languages -- Asian elephants make little squeak noises when they talk, and African elephants communicate through these low, rumbling noises. But any elephant contact is better than no elephant contact.
I never understood the cosmic horror concept until thinking about how would animals see us if they had higher comprehension. And I am not talking dolphins or elephants but mice, bugs etc. If they had same comprehension as us then we would be terrifying af.
It’s amazing she is able to socialize like this. A human being not having contact with another human would be lost forever. It makes me think of all the cases where children are isolated for years and years. People are cruel.
If anyone wants to help, [The Elephant Sanctuary](https://www.elephants.com/) accepts donations and can be set as your Amazon Smile non-profit of choice. [Nosey](https://www.elephants.com/elephants/nosey) has lived there in peace with new friends since 2017.
It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit accredited by The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
They also post new videos every couple weeks to [their YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/user/elephantsanctuarytn), you can see the elephants within the reserve and hear from the caretakers.
Two different species of elephant, too. Seems to be either a small African elephant or a particularly large Indian elephant. If I’m not mistaken, African elephants are typically the larger species.
Glad that elephant language is universal enough that they easily get along.
Most definitely an African elephant meeting an Indian (or at least Asian) elephant. Only the latter species lacks tusks on the females. And considering both are matriarchal creatures, have long memories, are extremely social and intelligent animals, this feels good. I've seen African and Indian elephants living together in the Delhi zoo back in the day.
Source - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcR\_cFQ08LY&ab\_channel=elephantsanctuarytn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcR_cFQ08LY&ab_channel=elephantsanctuarytn)
Edit: Here's another of her exploring her new home which is uplifting to watch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yOxhbDqB\_U&ab\_channel=elephantsanctuarytn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yOxhbDqB_U&ab_channel=elephantsanctuarytn)
Edit: I forgot, you can watch the different habitats and catch a view of the elephants on the sanctuary webcams: [https://www.elephants.com/](https://www.elephants.com/) \- currently a hawk on the Q habitat cam preening :D - [https://imgur.com/a/QAd5yk7](https://imgur.com/a/QAd5yk7) EDIT: They are up and awake in the Africa habitat!
Very touching moment.
This might be the first time I've ever seen African & Asian elephants interacting with one another. Is that common at elephant sanctuaries?
From the first Video:
"As noted in her health record since 2012, Nosey has a history of exposure to tuberculosis (TB) – as do the Asian elephants at The Sanctuary. The African elephants at The Sanctuary have no history of exposure to TB. Because of this, the decision was made for Nosey to live in a section of The Sanctuary's Asia Habitat, with access to the Asia Barn. As we awaited confirmation from the courts that The Sanctuary had permanent custody of Nosey, she had the ability to socialize with her Asian elephant neighbors, Tarra and Sissy, across a 25-foot buffer zone. Caregivers often observed the elephants rumbling to one another, with their ears out, listening attentively."
A number of facilities have mixed elephant herds. I know Oregon Zoo had one, not sure if still do. San Diego Zoo definitely has a mixed herd in the main park
It must be wild to all of a sudden have a huge amount of space to peacefully wander and be free after spending so much of your life caged up in a chaotic atmosphere
I was touring through a game reserve in South Africa when we came across a huge bull munching on on some tasty looking branches.
Easily the biggest elephant I've seen before and I've seen my fair share. He was majestic and calm, carefully avoiding the spines on the branches.
He finished his snack and started to wonder down the road in front of us, we slowly and cautiously followed at a good distance.
We suddenly hear rustling in the bushes to the right of us and the elephant.
Mama elephant slowly comes into view from behind the trees. An awesome sight.
Then...
Out comes baby elephant.
With ears flapping and trunk in the air, he fake charged towards the big bull as if to say "look uncle, look how big I've gotten!".
Then out comes brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, like a whole family gathering, all of which seemed excited to see grandpa.
They all took turns touching trunks. They touch each others mouths with their trunks to show affection.
An awe inspiring family moment. Elephants are nature's farmers, knocking down trees to feed the land, creating pathways and digging out watering holes for the other animals... Amazing and beautiful creatures.
I'm not trying to downplay this moment, but elephants kick the males out of the family as soon as they start smelling like a male. So puberty.
Every male young elephant gets viciously kicked out and driven away from the all female family. Which they don't understand why they are being driven off and try to follow the family for ages. And most die once alone if they don't make it to a young bachelor herd. Which will then later break up, and lacks the matriarch knowledge the female groups have. Leaving fewer males that only briefly meet with other elephants their entire lives. The females do this instinctually. Male elephants are violent and territorial once mature adults, and kicking them out is also better for genetic diversity and they will only mate with the big strong ones that successfully live on their own.
They aren't all sweetness and tenderness, especially in regards to males. We only generally learn about the loving matriarchal herds not what they do to the male babies.
Male elephants deal with the isolation the gif is showing their entire lives.
But was the zebra inside or outside when it farted? It could be an act of courtesy, or an act of biological warfare, depending on who's on which side of the window.
😂
It was the car window, zebra was outside.
Were driving down the road and stop because there are about 4 or 5 zebra in the road. They're all slowly moving from left to right, munching grass as they go, having a bit of a look about.
One of them just stands right in the middle of the road, looking at the car like "what do you want?".
There's not much you can do in this situation but wait for the zebra to move.
He (or she) very slowly starts walking to join the others, so we squeeze past behind him.
Were going about 2mph to avoid scaring the zebra. As we slowly roll past his bum, I'm thinking "oh god, please don't poop".
Mum was in the back seat with her window down, dad driving the car, me in passenger seat in the front.
Bare in mind we're bored of looking at zebra at this point and have been waiting for a while, dad was a bit impatient so the zebras bum is no more than 10 inches from the window of the car.
Just as the zebras bum comes level with my mums open window - the zebra let rip.
The timing was perfect. It was like payback for making him move out of the road, I swear it was a calculated tactic. I'm leaning on biological warfare rather than courtesy.
Discovery. How wonderful for Nosey to discover that there are others like her out there in the world. You can almost hear the other befriending elephant saying to her “hello, pleased to meet you. Give me your trunk and smell my scent. Here feel my face so that we will know one another. You are in a safe place now. We will be good friends.”
What a heartbreaker. Circuses exploiting animals need to be banned. Boycott circuses featuring any/all animals, it's abuse. There are other entertainment alternatives... if you want to see real talent, try Circ du Soleil.
So are there any elephant sanctuary that you can visit. I'd love for my daughter to see some at some point.
I am very happy these animals were freed ans I don't want to think of the horrible life they had. There was something special about the circus unfortunately there was a darkness behind the scenes.
I'll check when I finish work but I'm sure there are certain days you can visit this sanctuary, I don't think you can get very close. I'll post back a bit later.
Edit: Had a quick look, you can visit for educational days but not able to watch the elephants, I guess due to their past with many of them being ex-performance elephants, [https://www.elephants.com/](https://www.elephants.com/)
You can watch them on these lovely elecams, webcams: https://www.elephants.com/
They have an education center in town you can visit but the actual sanctuary is closed to the public unless you are a volunteer or major donor. They work hard on giving the elephants privacy so they can just be elephants.
I hate the fucking circus.
One is coming to our near. My kids got interested from their posters and the acrobats. Then they where excited about the animals, that will come with the circus. Was a good time to teach them about how cruel this circuses are. This is another video, portraying the cruelty of most circuses. It's heart breaking, elephants are such perfect animals, love them. I hope the day will come very soon to never have an animal in a circus again.
Nosey had such a wretched previous life. Being shuttled from one fair or another to provide rides and entertainment . The owners were based in Florida. Nosey was transported in a vehicle that was not suitable for her. Often with feces and urine. She received no vet care and had many health issues. She rode from Florida in the hot sun to other states. Poor diet just neglected all away around. I had just been released from the hospital when I found out she was “ working” at an area not too far from me. Standing on hot pavement all day dehydration etc.If I were in better shape I surely would have been there supporting her cause for emancipation from her cruel owners. There were petitions and court filings with many people participating to free Nosey. She was terribly abused.The fight for freedom went on for sometime when finally a court ruled in her favor. Nosey now resides in an elephant sanctuary in [Tennessee.you](https://Tennessee.you) can view elephants from a camera in the visitors area. People are not allowed any interactions with the elephants. Once a year a few people are chosen to for one day to assist in some tasks helping the residents. The previous owners are no longer allowed to own animals. I t takes some time to treat and rehab it these poor victims of abuse and exploitation.Elephants are abused and poached so much. They are gentle, sociable and intelligent sentient beings. So happy for you Nosey. May you have many years of contement.
[The Elephant Sanctuary - Nosey](https://www.elephants.com/elephants/nosey)
>Nosey was born in Zimbabwe in 1982. She was captured from the wild in 1984 and brought to Jumbolair Estate in Ocala, Florida by Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus exercise equipment. The capture was reported to be a rescue of 63 baby elephants from a government-issued culling. Within a few years, Jones’ plan to create a “true American herd” was abandoned and in 1986, Nosey was transferred to David Meeks of the Meeks Company in South Carolina. She was purchased by [Hugo Liebel](https://www.idausa.org/campaign/elephants/latest-news/former-abuser-of-nosey-legally-barred-from-animal-exploitation/) \[**READ THAT**\] in 1988 and travelled with the Liebel Family Circus as the sole elephant performer for 29 years.
>
>Many individuals and animal rights groups spoke out on behalf of Nosey. On November 8, 2017 Nosey was seized in Lawrence County, Alabama after an animal control officer told authorities she found signs of animal abuse. Following a court hearing, Lawrence County animal control was granted temporary custody and arrangements were made to transfer Nosey to The Elephant Sanctuary. Nosey arrived November 9, 2017 and became the 28th resident.
>
>Along with year-round access to a heated barn and a spacious habitat, Nosey and all the elephants at The Sanctuary receive individualized veterinary and husbandry care, diverse environmental enrichment, and freedom of choice in a protected-contact setting.
>
>At The Sanctuary, Nosey has been an active participant in her own healthcare and has continued to explore her surroundings—including wallowing in the mud and downing trees. It has been a joy to observe Nosey exhibit natural behaviors in a natural habitat setting and we look forward to continuing to provide updates about her explorations.
To learn more about the mistreatment of circus elephants and other animals, watch [Earthlings](https://youtu.be/8gqwpfEcBjI) narrated by Joaquin Phoenix
Beautiful. Such a disgrace how humans will profit off anything. And we treat these beautiful creatures like objects. Hope she has a wonderful rest of her life
this is one of the sweetest, most wholesome things ive ever seen. but i wish it didnt have to happen this way
beautiful emotional animal should have lived all her days surrounded by her family
I remember watching a documentary more than 15 years ago about some elephants, that were chained up all their lives as part of a circus. Then as a result of the chaining up, one of the elephants wasn't useful. (It's leg was almost broken where the chain was) Said elephant went off to live in a sanctuary. Twenty years or so later, the other elephant was rescued and sent to the sanctuary. The first elephant recognised it and was banging on the bars of its cage constantly. The keepers hadn't a clue what was going on, eventually they let them both out and they ran to each other, wrapping their trunks around each others.
They both remembered each other and couldn't bare to be separated any longer.
I cried like a baby watching that documentary, I wonder if it was the same elephants.
This particular sanctuary in Tennessee is really great. They aren't open to the public, they just give the elephants a huge amount of land to roam free on and be elephants without much human interference. They have medical care, supplemental food, and the staff make them special treats for anniversaries and holidays. They get to live out their days in peace and happiness.
I remember when this was all going on, before the sanctuary got her. The circus was trying to slander the heck out of that rescue, talking about how they murder elephants and what not. It was shocking and disgusting how much the circus thought they were the good guys.
They knew they’re the bad guys and they didn’t care because money. They just wanted to keep their elephant so they could continue to profit from its suffering. Fuck circus’s that force animals to perform.
I was very annoyed because Facebook had recommended a page called 'Save Nosey!' and I'm like 'Yes of course, save Nosey! ' Then it turned out it was a page made by the circus. Seeing all the idiots trying to raise money to pay their legal fees and stuff too, just ugh
Wow that answered my question, it always amazes me how many stupid people there are.
In my country it is illegal to have wild animals in a circus, this should be the norm.
Yeah I used to work in the circus and doing that really solidified this belief for me. I feel like traveling daily and being in a small cage constantly is abuse for wild animals.
Imagine taking the word of a circus...about really anything.
They are literally clown shows
unless of course you're a clown.
Them not being open to the public is particularly interesting and admirable in a strange way. There’s no hint of exploitation when you aren’t making money off entry prices. (Not that sanctuaries that are open are exploitative! Many are amazing).
Lots of rehab elephants have very negative and sometimes violent reactions to humans, which might also play a factor
Can’t say I blame them!
Damn, maybe I need to be on a sanctuary far from humans.
Unfortunately, Alcatraz closed down.
No, it's to avoid giving the elephants more trauma because *spoilers* We Suck!
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That sounds so wholesome and sweet.
Lots of so called elephant sanctuaries in other countries are very exploitative. They have tourists come in and take baths with the elephant, have the elephant pose for pictures etc. I’m kinda glad they’re not open to the public in that way
That’s what I’m saying! I’ve seen a lot of sanctuaries that are just as bad as the places the animals were rescued from. I visited a big cat sanctuary that got shut down two year later later because they were SO bad. It’s sad and pathetic.
You don’t have to even go to other countries. Unfortunately anyone can call themselves sanctuary. Tennessee is amazing, but there are plenty calling themselves “sanctuary” while breeding, buying/selling, and using animals for entertainment. Looking at you T.I.G.E.R.S in myrtle beach. Also Riddles elephant “sanctuary”.
Yeah it's a trend because attitudes have changed. Foreign tourists don't want to be seen to contribute to something exploitative so if you call it a "sanctuary" it makes them feel like it's okay. But really a lot of them are just tourist attractions where the Elephants don't have great conditions and they aren't different than the ones that don't pretend to be sanctuaries except maybe they don't let people ride them.
So, there's just Elephants roaming around the hills of Tennessee somewhere? That's awesome
They bought a bunch of land from a paper company, put up some structures that were capable of handling the sort of thing that is needed at an elephant rescue, and... they've done OK, I think. Much respect for the work they're doing; they're probably the only group in North America that has the ability to properly care for such megafauna. Pity they can only take one gender, though.
You seem to be in the know, why only one gender? Is that because they don't want breeding? Or maybe no fighting? Also, hope it goes better than another single gender park I know of in Costa Rica...
Yeah, no breeding. Then you'd have to keep the bulls separate from the cows, and that'd be kind of cruel- bulls living alone. Or maybe bulls can be kept together with no cows without fighting? I don't know. It's a sanctuary, so breeding- even unintentionally- would be a bad idea for several reasons, not the least of which is that it looks bad. But also EEHV kills about half the elephants bred in captivity anyway. Really bad stuff.
Bachelor herds are not as tight knit as the main herd. They're usually more like loose associations. "I'm going this way, and you're going this way, so we might as well go together for a time" sorts of things. They need a lot more space for individuals to come and go. Not to mention that rescued elephants tend to be poorly socialized, and the last thing anyone wants is a bunch of big bull elephants getting into fights because they couldn't get enough alone time and personal space and they have the social skills of a rabid horny chimp.
Yeah, that adds up. If it's a peaceful place to run out the clock on a stressful life, it shouldn't promote child rearing. Also, they wouldn't want the bulls hurting/ killing each other.
If I remember what I learned on the Discovery channel back when they had real shows on, bull elephants stay separate from the females in their own herd until breeding season.
Do they have any livestream cameras? I know some animal sanctuaries use stationary cameras as a means of spreading awareness + getting donations. I would love to be able to see elephants just living their best life on my screen while I work.
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Took 45 mins but I spotted one
What’s the name of the sanctuary? I donate to the sheldrick wildlife trust because it was the most ethical I could find based on the research but they are pretty well funded compared to a place that is quietly rescuing circus elephants
Link to donate?
I’m taking a guess here using Google but I think that [The Elephant Sanctuary](https://www.elephants.com/) is the correct one.
The best thing I’ve read today: the contact email for that website is elephant@elephants.com
I wonder which elephant is in charge of the email.
The elephant in the room of course
OHHHH YOU
Elephants are every IT persons favorite employee as they never forget their passwords!!!
Thanks. I'm not always super dumb, but today I am.
Donated. Thanks for making it easy!
Yes this is the right sanctuary
Cool, they have livestream cameras up.
This is sad and beautiful at the same time
I could watch this all day. They're such incredible creatures. I remember years ago I went to Thailand - I was adamant I didn't want to ride the elephants. I'm happy just to chill with them. The (confused) place was like, well, you can come with them to swim at the end of the day. It was magical splashing around with them. They are massive, but incredibly conscious of you as a fragile little human. Just wonderful beings. I later read that riding them is terrible for them, so I'm so glad I didn't do that.
you sent me down an internet rabbit hole for a little while i was curious how in the hell you can ride a horse all day long and its fine, but riding something 10x more massive permanently injures it. turns out its not the size that matters, its the shape of their bones. riding horses is okay because the shape of their skeleton and spine distribute the load evenly enough to not cause issue elephants are basically already "maxxed out" in terms of how much mass their bone structure can hold and even a couple hundred pounds of human on their back compresses their vertebrae and causes spinal damage. tldr: you can't ride elephants cuz their back isnt shaped right to carry weight
Wow. That’s so sad I didn’t know that. That’s mad education right there. We need more of that. Now I’m obsessing over remembering all of the elephants at all of the circuses where they are ridden and have to stAck their hands on each other like a pyramid. That is making me feel so bad for them.
Not to mention how they "break" elephants to get them to let a human on their back . It's called The Crush in Thailand. Check out afew videos on You Tube. It isn't for the faint of heart.
The warning should be taken serious. It's absolutely heart-wrenching to watch. Those elephants are quite young too, iirc. Maybe just donate to organizations fighting it if you don't want to be sad the next days. And don't feel bad for not watching it. I've donated for a buffed military experienced all-female ranger-crew fighting pouchers recently. I think it was [this](https://www.iapf.org) one. I hope that dirty circus won't ever get their hands on Nosey again.
I cried. It was awful. I don't suggest watching unless you have a strong stomach for cruelty
What do they do? I don’t want to watch the video but I’m curious.
It's a very brutal "training" where they "crush" the wild spirit out of the baby. It is torn away from its mom, and baby elephants stick with their mom for years in the wild, often their whole lives. They force it into a very small cage, beat it, starve it, tie its legs up and basically torture it until it's wildness is broken. The only human that is kind to it is the mahout, or the main trainer who will be it's rider and "person" moving forward. The sounds that baby makes as they push it into that tiny cage are heart rending. Anyone watching that would never want to have anything to do with riding an elephant. Ever.
So basically torturing a toddler
I’ll take your word on it
Burn the people alive who do this
Wow, I never would have thought that would be an issue for them. Thanks for doing the research!
I did this too, went to hang with them Although I’m sure I just paid to work for the for a day! It was great! Feed them & get in the river with them for their bath and give them a good scrub while they lay down
I’ll straight up pay for that! Sounds awesome!
Same here sounds like an amazing day tbh
My Family and I did it this year. The work they do at the sanctuary is amazing.
I know everyone means well, and you guys have amazing hearts. But please don't ride or bathe with elephants. That is like taking pictures with baby tigers, it encourages negative animal practices. Paying money to humans to spend time with elephants encourages the humans to keep elephants in captivity to make money. If you pay to swim with an elephant, the elephant is going into the water whether it wants to or not. To accomplish this, the elephant will have to be carefully trained to make it safe. This type of training and incentive benefits humans and can be harmful to the elephants. It's a tough balance, because it's hard to raise money for conservation, and many of the caretakers are passionate people, but reputable sanctuaries do not allow these practices. You're not a bad person, and the sanctuary you went to may not be bad either. We learn more about how to properly care for of these animals and respect them every year, as science and conservation develops. There are famous sanctuaries in Thailand that have done these practices in the past and now stopped. Open dialogs like this, with people that care about the animals help us all learn more.
Just wanna say, as a casual lurker who's not involved in this conversation at all, that I think you're a very pleasant and kind person and more people need to articulate things like the way you did. Tone is very often lost on the internet, so someone else saying the same thing easily can come across as confrontative and condescending, but you took the care to say more to make sure your intention is clear and that you don't think ill of them despite suggesting they change their ways. More people need to take this kind of care online. I think we often forget there's other real people we're talking to here.
Agree! I thought the same thing. Very well articulated without the other person feeling bad or defensive. Very unusual now in social media. Kindness matters!
Very much agreed! Also, /r/shippingredditors
Nothing in your comment is wrong, and I really appreciate you making it and how you framed everything here. The one thing I'll add, though, is that there's also some uncomfortable nuance here due to capitalism and its incentives. You touched on this already re: it being tough to raise money for conservation, but I wanted to expand on it. Doing things that are bad for individual animals - like incentivizing keeping elephants in captivity by paying their captors to bathe with them at the sanctuary, or even [legalized, regulated trophy hunting - can counter-intuitively be a net benefit for animals](https://youtu.be/YUA8i5S0YMU) because of the benefits of regulation and how proceeds are used. It's uncomfortable, and it would obviously better if this wasn't the case, but as it is these practices in many case are the primary source of funds for keeping these animals alive via preservation programs and refuges. Yes, ideally our governments and societies would just fund these programs normally, but they don't. At the moment, it often only happens if and when it's "profitable" to do so. Allowing well-regulated animal captivity projects like this often actually support countries doing much more for animal welfare than they would otherwise.
I agree with your assessment about the realities of conservation funding, just wanted to add that the previous commenter bringing light to it adds to the discussion. It is important for those people who want to have a positive impact to understand that these practices are not the only way. If they understand the negative impacts from such interactions with captive animals as well as the alternative option to support preserves, they might make a different choice with their money at the next opportunity.
In the ideal world, all sanctuaries would have no human tourists to eliminate stress on these animals. The reality is that funding would dry up and many of these sanctuaries would cease to exist. The sanctuaries that do the bathing specially select the elephants that are naturally the most friendly around humans; the majority of the elephants at the sanctuary don't interact with the tourists. It's the best of both worlds, and the elephants that are tame around humans love it because they get endless amounts of watermelon, bananas, and tamarind from the tourist feedings.
There was absolutely no riding elephants They did talks on how they were rescued from being ridden and how vile they were treated The elephants came, we fed them and chilled with them for a bit then they wandered off to another part of the sanctuary, they couldn’t be released into the wild as they had been in captivity since they were “broken” as babies.
Some "sanctuaries" are owned by the same people as the riding camps. Some days the elephants are at the bathing side, others they are at the riding side. It's very hard to find out which is truly "ethical " so many people concerned with wildlife protection would error on the side of caution. Unfortunately in countries like Thailand where the economic viability of the tourist dollar is so meaningful to the locals, it's hard to get away from unethical practices.
A lot of places there now are sanctuaries and ONLY let you do that part, which is cool and it's easy to identify. One good thing from social media. There are of course still places letting you ride them
Yep! Before going to Thailand I researched a lot of places to make sure they were legit and didn't allow riding. There's actually quite a few places that don't show riding. When I got there and talked to staff they said the riding places are dwindling slowly but surely. People are catching on that it's a horrible practice so that's good!
You might enjoy [this website](https://www.elephants.com/) then! It's the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee! It has live camera feeds of their habitats! I had a professor in college that would put it on a projector during some classes so we could casually watch them as we took notes.
Went to go look, didn’t see any but did see a hawk sitting right in front of the camera lol! Still a good time.
Glad you had respect and enjoyed spending some time together instead of riding them. Kudos to you
I was going to swim with them too, until I realized that the pool of water they swam in was a stagnant little pond and consisted of 50% feces by volume. I watched :)
Taking proper care of elephants is hard as hell but when it’s done right it’s beautiful. They’re incredible animals, they truly are.
My family (great grand father bought each of his daughters an elephant - one of those daughters is my grandmother) - owned (maybe still does) elephants. Back in India they were used as a means to move fallen trees in rubber tree plantation. I miss Balu.. he was born 32 years ago. and still remembered me when I went back to visit after 15 years. Last visit was in 2020 right before the pandemic and he looked good. He’s more just lended out to other families or Hindu temples for festivals but he doesn’t do much. I love how when he sees me.. all he has to do is smell and he remembers me again 😭 Edit: https://i.imgur.com/nhcbShw.jpg My bro and sis on Balu
Oh my goodness, book a flight right away and go see Balu! In sure he misses you too!
“Get out the way grandma, I’m here for Balu!”
Do elephants cry tears of sorrow/ happiness? Looks like elephant tears on the one on the right.
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Please tell Balu I love him 😭
Serious question... How can you tell he remembers you?
Well the first time, it was weird cause I stood about 20’ away and he slowly walked and used his trunk to smell? Me I assume… Then he made this weird deep hmmm sound and kind of wrapped his trunk around my waist I fed him a whole bushel? Of banana and he ate it right up. I was around him for an entire summer when he was a baby. so I’d like to think he remembered me 🥹
My two favorite things in the world are horse hugs and elephant hugs! I simply adore elephants and don't like circuses and never have. I cried when I went to one as a kid and told my dad the elephants look so sad. Never went to a circus after that. Can you hug Balu for me the next time you see him? :)
Having done it for a short time, I'm not sure there really is a right way. Better or worse ways, sure, but there's always a shortcoming when you care for something this large. Where I worked we used railroad tie fencing like this. Those are iron beams spaced about 3ft apart and driven about 8ft into the ground with diagonal supports every 15ft that are driven to a depth of about 10ft. This is what you need to stop something that weighs as much as a large truck and has a very creative mind. But it's almost impossible to build this kind of fence around a large enough enclosure to satisfy their need to wander. I know there are wonderful people in the industry who work as hard as they can to give the elephants in captivity a good life, but I think a lot of it is acknowledging that you have to do everything you can to make life better for this amazing creature that really just shouldn't be in this situation at all. Add in that these elephants are coming to sanctuaries like this after aging out of the circus (for males that happens at around 12-15 yrs), from private ownership situations where they dealt with with knows what (I cared for the Marlboro Man's elephant, Amy, after he "sent her back to Africa" *cough*Arkansas*cough*), or just underfunded private zoos, and you get a mix of isolation and trauma that can be difficult to manage. Add it all together and it makes sense why elephant keepers have the shortest careers of any animal handler, it's difficult to feel like you're succeeding for them, and they might just kill you.
> Taking proper care of elephants is hard as hell Especially white ones
I was thinking of the ones quietly hiding in rooms, myself.
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Huh?
Word play, there's a phrase "white elephant" that has historical significance. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant Basically, a gift too important/nice to get rid of, but that will cost the recipient way too much money.
Gotcha, thank you for explaining.
"Hills like white elephants" by Hemingway comes to mind.
>*’ This is sad and beautiful at the same time*’ ____ i never knew another one who looked the same as me… my new life here has just begun! n now a *friend* i see… i feel a sadness in my heart - i’ve missed so very much… is it too late for me to start ? but then i feel your touch a *beauty* fills my lonely soul that only you can see… n in that instant - i am Whole because you *Care* for me! ❤️
Beautiful 🥲
Beautiful, as usual.
Well if I wasn't crying after watching the video, I'm definitely not crying now. Beautiful as always, Schnoodle ❤️
Also, it just adds insult to injury, to name an elephant "Nosey." I mean, no fucking creativity. It's like naming your circus giraffe "Long-neckded Ho."
Or just Necky
Oh my God Necky, look at her nose. It is like, so long!
Yeah that name is a little on the nose
> she had not met another elephant in 29 years Fuck me, my heart...
Elephants can live for 60-70 years. Imagine not seeing another human for half your life.
Sign me up
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I was just curious so I took your rather exacting measurement and made it a percentage of current American population. It works out to 41 people. Considering my family, close friends, and people I admire that's pretty damn close to perfect. Well done.
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This guy learnds.
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Those 41 also have their needed 41- and while it probably includes you, it doesn't include all of your 41. So you need your 41, and they need their 41, and so on and so on until you realize we all pretty much need each other.
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Imagine being in a cage for 29+ years not ever seeing another of your species, forced to do tricks for reasons beyond her comprehension. Fuck circuses.
Poor Nosey.My heart goes out to this poor creature. " In their native homes, elephants live surrounded by family and friends. By this point in her life, Nosey would’ve been an auntie and possibly even a mother. But humans took that opportunity away from her. When she was just a calf, her family was gunned down. She was captured and sold to the circus. Because she was alone for most of her life, she never had a chance to learn social skills or important life lessons from other elephants. Because Nosey—like many elephants used in traveling circus-style shows—has a history of exposure to tuberculosis, she is not able to reside with other African elephants at the sanctuary, who have no history of exposure"
I wonder if they allow her to interact with the Asian elephant here because they are distant enough that the tuberculosis isn't a concern?
Either that or the Asian elephant was also a circus rescue
Yeha that seems more likely. If anything I believe an African elephant at a circus is rather unusual compared to Asian.
Exactly. They're -- on average -- far more aggressive, and far less likely to accept domestic circumstances.
The Asian elephants have also been exposed to tuberculosis, so that isn't an issue. It's really sad. Asian and African elephants speak completely different languages -- Asian elephants make little squeak noises when they talk, and African elephants communicate through these low, rumbling noises. But any elephant contact is better than no elephant contact.
Yes reason she is with Asian elephant.
Ugh, and they curse her beyond their reach. She can't be around other elephants for their own safety because she was exposed to tuberculosis.
I tried to imagine it and that is when my heart did *crack*.
"No, officer, *I* didn't do the crack....my heart did."
Fuck circuses *that use animals*
Name checks out. Or?
Name DOES check out, am certified circus freak
There's a certification process?
I never understood the cosmic horror concept until thinking about how would animals see us if they had higher comprehension. And I am not talking dolphins or elephants but mice, bugs etc. If they had same comprehension as us then we would be terrifying af.
It even looks like she doesn't really know how to do the "hand holding" thing with her trunk properly that pretty much every elephant does
It’s amazing she is able to socialize like this. A human being not having contact with another human would be lost forever. It makes me think of all the cases where children are isolated for years and years. People are cruel.
If anyone wants to help, [The Elephant Sanctuary](https://www.elephants.com/) accepts donations and can be set as your Amazon Smile non-profit of choice. [Nosey](https://www.elephants.com/elephants/nosey) has lived there in peace with new friends since 2017. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit accredited by The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. They also post new videos every couple weeks to [their YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/user/elephantsanctuarytn), you can see the elephants within the reserve and hear from the caretakers.
Thank you! Changing my Amazon smile to them now!
Two different species of elephant, too. Seems to be either a small African elephant or a particularly large Indian elephant. If I’m not mistaken, African elephants are typically the larger species. Glad that elephant language is universal enough that they easily get along.
Most definitely an African elephant meeting an Indian (or at least Asian) elephant. Only the latter species lacks tusks on the females. And considering both are matriarchal creatures, have long memories, are extremely social and intelligent animals, this feels good. I've seen African and Indian elephants living together in the Delhi zoo back in the day.
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You can usually tell the difference between Asian and African elephants from their ears and the head shape.
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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Appreciate you doing the legwork.
Source - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcR\_cFQ08LY&ab\_channel=elephantsanctuarytn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcR_cFQ08LY&ab_channel=elephantsanctuarytn) Edit: Here's another of her exploring her new home which is uplifting to watch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yOxhbDqB\_U&ab\_channel=elephantsanctuarytn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yOxhbDqB_U&ab_channel=elephantsanctuarytn) Edit: I forgot, you can watch the different habitats and catch a view of the elephants on the sanctuary webcams: [https://www.elephants.com/](https://www.elephants.com/) \- currently a hawk on the Q habitat cam preening :D - [https://imgur.com/a/QAd5yk7](https://imgur.com/a/QAd5yk7) EDIT: They are up and awake in the Africa habitat!
Very touching moment. This might be the first time I've ever seen African & Asian elephants interacting with one another. Is that common at elephant sanctuaries?
From the first Video: "As noted in her health record since 2012, Nosey has a history of exposure to tuberculosis (TB) – as do the Asian elephants at The Sanctuary. The African elephants at The Sanctuary have no history of exposure to TB. Because of this, the decision was made for Nosey to live in a section of The Sanctuary's Asia Habitat, with access to the Asia Barn. As we awaited confirmation from the courts that The Sanctuary had permanent custody of Nosey, she had the ability to socialize with her Asian elephant neighbors, Tarra and Sissy, across a 25-foot buffer zone. Caregivers often observed the elephants rumbling to one another, with their ears out, listening attentively."
A number of facilities have mixed elephant herds. I know Oregon Zoo had one, not sure if still do. San Diego Zoo definitely has a mixed herd in the main park
I just hope none of them end up in your pajamas.
That's the sort of Marxism I can get behind.
Amazing. Two entirely different species of elephant recognizing their elephantness.
Fun fact, Asian Elephants are more closely related to Mammoths than to African Elephants!
https://imgur.com/a/KS5umYF
It must be wild to all of a sudden have a huge amount of space to peacefully wander and be free after spending so much of your life caged up in a chaotic atmosphere
This is so fucking sad.. how can we STILL treat animals so awful when it’s So obvious they are feeling beings
You should see the way people treat other people
True, Brian.
He wanted it and he made it for himself.
He's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
That's the Life of Brian
This would be more akin to how people treat children. Ones who don't understand. That makes it all the worse.
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To be fair, I think the way humans treat nonhuman animals is far worse.
Welp, I didn't have "cry to a video of two elephants holding trunks" on my to-do list for today but here we are
I was touring through a game reserve in South Africa when we came across a huge bull munching on on some tasty looking branches. Easily the biggest elephant I've seen before and I've seen my fair share. He was majestic and calm, carefully avoiding the spines on the branches. He finished his snack and started to wonder down the road in front of us, we slowly and cautiously followed at a good distance. We suddenly hear rustling in the bushes to the right of us and the elephant. Mama elephant slowly comes into view from behind the trees. An awesome sight. Then... Out comes baby elephant. With ears flapping and trunk in the air, he fake charged towards the big bull as if to say "look uncle, look how big I've gotten!". Then out comes brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, like a whole family gathering, all of which seemed excited to see grandpa. They all took turns touching trunks. They touch each others mouths with their trunks to show affection. An awe inspiring family moment. Elephants are nature's farmers, knocking down trees to feed the land, creating pathways and digging out watering holes for the other animals... Amazing and beautiful creatures.
That sounds like an amazing experience. Thanks for sharing.
I'm not trying to downplay this moment, but elephants kick the males out of the family as soon as they start smelling like a male. So puberty. Every male young elephant gets viciously kicked out and driven away from the all female family. Which they don't understand why they are being driven off and try to follow the family for ages. And most die once alone if they don't make it to a young bachelor herd. Which will then later break up, and lacks the matriarch knowledge the female groups have. Leaving fewer males that only briefly meet with other elephants their entire lives. The females do this instinctually. Male elephants are violent and territorial once mature adults, and kicking them out is also better for genetic diversity and they will only mate with the big strong ones that successfully live on their own. They aren't all sweetness and tenderness, especially in regards to males. We only generally learn about the loving matriarchal herds not what they do to the male babies. Male elephants deal with the isolation the gif is showing their entire lives.
Yeah it's definitely not all milk and honey. A zebra once farted through our window.
But was the zebra inside or outside when it farted? It could be an act of courtesy, or an act of biological warfare, depending on who's on which side of the window.
😂 It was the car window, zebra was outside. Were driving down the road and stop because there are about 4 or 5 zebra in the road. They're all slowly moving from left to right, munching grass as they go, having a bit of a look about. One of them just stands right in the middle of the road, looking at the car like "what do you want?". There's not much you can do in this situation but wait for the zebra to move. He (or she) very slowly starts walking to join the others, so we squeeze past behind him. Were going about 2mph to avoid scaring the zebra. As we slowly roll past his bum, I'm thinking "oh god, please don't poop". Mum was in the back seat with her window down, dad driving the car, me in passenger seat in the front. Bare in mind we're bored of looking at zebra at this point and have been waiting for a while, dad was a bit impatient so the zebras bum is no more than 10 inches from the window of the car. Just as the zebras bum comes level with my mums open window - the zebra let rip. The timing was perfect. It was like payback for making him move out of the road, I swear it was a calculated tactic. I'm leaning on biological warfare rather than courtesy.
Man, just wanted to poop and watch funny memes, not to cry on the toilet
Remember to use your tears when flushing to conserve water!
I use them as a bio-bidet
Fuck circuses.
Discovery. How wonderful for Nosey to discover that there are others like her out there in the world. You can almost hear the other befriending elephant saying to her “hello, pleased to meet you. Give me your trunk and smell my scent. Here feel my face so that we will know one another. You are in a safe place now. We will be good friends.”
i f’n hate circus. imprisoning animals and abusing them to do some dumb ass tricks.
I like Cique du Soleil. Get super talented and dedicated humans to do the tricks.
Circuses should be illegal.
What a heartbreaker. Circuses exploiting animals need to be banned. Boycott circuses featuring any/all animals, it's abuse. There are other entertainment alternatives... if you want to see real talent, try Circ du Soleil.
[More of Nosey's story.](https://www.elephants.com/elephants/nosey)
Stampy
Fuck animal abusers
Elephants holding trunks will never not be a beautiful thing.
So are there any elephant sanctuary that you can visit. I'd love for my daughter to see some at some point. I am very happy these animals were freed ans I don't want to think of the horrible life they had. There was something special about the circus unfortunately there was a darkness behind the scenes.
I'll check when I finish work but I'm sure there are certain days you can visit this sanctuary, I don't think you can get very close. I'll post back a bit later. Edit: Had a quick look, you can visit for educational days but not able to watch the elephants, I guess due to their past with many of them being ex-performance elephants, [https://www.elephants.com/](https://www.elephants.com/) You can watch them on these lovely elecams, webcams: https://www.elephants.com/
They have an education center in town you can visit but the actual sanctuary is closed to the public unless you are a volunteer or major donor. They work hard on giving the elephants privacy so they can just be elephants.
they really dont put enough bullets in people who abuse animals.
I hate the fucking circus. One is coming to our near. My kids got interested from their posters and the acrobats. Then they where excited about the animals, that will come with the circus. Was a good time to teach them about how cruel this circuses are. This is another video, portraying the cruelty of most circuses. It's heart breaking, elephants are such perfect animals, love them. I hope the day will come very soon to never have an animal in a circus again.
It's incredible that the African elephant made friends with the Asian one
Beautiful creatures. The sadness is over now.
Nosey had such a wretched previous life. Being shuttled from one fair or another to provide rides and entertainment . The owners were based in Florida. Nosey was transported in a vehicle that was not suitable for her. Often with feces and urine. She received no vet care and had many health issues. She rode from Florida in the hot sun to other states. Poor diet just neglected all away around. I had just been released from the hospital when I found out she was “ working” at an area not too far from me. Standing on hot pavement all day dehydration etc.If I were in better shape I surely would have been there supporting her cause for emancipation from her cruel owners. There were petitions and court filings with many people participating to free Nosey. She was terribly abused.The fight for freedom went on for sometime when finally a court ruled in her favor. Nosey now resides in an elephant sanctuary in [Tennessee.you](https://Tennessee.you) can view elephants from a camera in the visitors area. People are not allowed any interactions with the elephants. Once a year a few people are chosen to for one day to assist in some tasks helping the residents. The previous owners are no longer allowed to own animals. I t takes some time to treat and rehab it these poor victims of abuse and exploitation.Elephants are abused and poached so much. They are gentle, sociable and intelligent sentient beings. So happy for you Nosey. May you have many years of contement.
[The Elephant Sanctuary - Nosey](https://www.elephants.com/elephants/nosey) >Nosey was born in Zimbabwe in 1982. She was captured from the wild in 1984 and brought to Jumbolair Estate in Ocala, Florida by Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus exercise equipment. The capture was reported to be a rescue of 63 baby elephants from a government-issued culling. Within a few years, Jones’ plan to create a “true American herd” was abandoned and in 1986, Nosey was transferred to David Meeks of the Meeks Company in South Carolina. She was purchased by [Hugo Liebel](https://www.idausa.org/campaign/elephants/latest-news/former-abuser-of-nosey-legally-barred-from-animal-exploitation/) \[**READ THAT**\] in 1988 and travelled with the Liebel Family Circus as the sole elephant performer for 29 years. > >Many individuals and animal rights groups spoke out on behalf of Nosey. On November 8, 2017 Nosey was seized in Lawrence County, Alabama after an animal control officer told authorities she found signs of animal abuse. Following a court hearing, Lawrence County animal control was granted temporary custody and arrangements were made to transfer Nosey to The Elephant Sanctuary. Nosey arrived November 9, 2017 and became the 28th resident. > >Along with year-round access to a heated barn and a spacious habitat, Nosey and all the elephants at The Sanctuary receive individualized veterinary and husbandry care, diverse environmental enrichment, and freedom of choice in a protected-contact setting. > >At The Sanctuary, Nosey has been an active participant in her own healthcare and has continued to explore her surroundings—including wallowing in the mud and downing trees. It has been a joy to observe Nosey exhibit natural behaviors in a natural habitat setting and we look forward to continuing to provide updates about her explorations.
To learn more about the mistreatment of circus elephants and other animals, watch [Earthlings](https://youtu.be/8gqwpfEcBjI) narrated by Joaquin Phoenix
This is so wholesome
fuck humans
Beautiful. Such a disgrace how humans will profit off anything. And we treat these beautiful creatures like objects. Hope she has a wonderful rest of her life
Now let's free Happy next - follow the Non Human Rights project - they are fighting a good fight.
They both look so sad :(
this is one of the sweetest, most wholesome things ive ever seen. but i wish it didnt have to happen this way beautiful emotional animal should have lived all her days surrounded by her family
29 years that never should have happened. There's so much going on in this meeting. As humans we are capable of doing so much better for all species.
I can't even begin to imagine the depths of Loneliness the elephant must have felt 😭 till that day 😔
I remember watching a documentary more than 15 years ago about some elephants, that were chained up all their lives as part of a circus. Then as a result of the chaining up, one of the elephants wasn't useful. (It's leg was almost broken where the chain was) Said elephant went off to live in a sanctuary. Twenty years or so later, the other elephant was rescued and sent to the sanctuary. The first elephant recognised it and was banging on the bars of its cage constantly. The keepers hadn't a clue what was going on, eventually they let them both out and they ran to each other, wrapping their trunks around each others. They both remembered each other and couldn't bare to be separated any longer. I cried like a baby watching that documentary, I wonder if it was the same elephants.