GREAT ESCAPE

As zoos and circuses release their captive elephants, what solutions exist to offer these giants a better quality of life?

- MARK STRATTON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Stratton is a travel writer, environmental journalist, photographer and radio broadcaster for BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. His work has taken him to more than 140 countries. Visit markstrattontravels.com

GANDHI, A 52-YEAR-OLD ASIAN elephant, is picking at windfall apples when an enclosure. Te's Woexty, the farm cat. Ghandi's ears flare and she swivels, chasing the fleeing feline towards her heated barn. She plunges indoors and doesn't reappear, likely preferring the warmth to the chill of an autumn day in southern France.

Ghandi was the first elephant to take up residence here at Elephant Haven, a sanctuary co-founded by ex-zookeeper Sofie Goetghebeur and Tony Verlust in 2016. It's the largest elephant sanctuary in western Europe, comprising 29ha of beautiful mixed woodland and ponds. Ghandi arrived here in October 2021 from a cash-strapped Brittany Zoo. She had been spirited away from her mother, likely in Thailand, when a baby, in 1973, and has spent her entire life in captivity. “Before being rescued, Gandhi stood around with little energy. Now look at her. She has new life,” says Goetghebeur.

ELEPHANT HAVEN REPRESENTS a glittering template of what life in captivity could look like for elephants at a time when we are realising that these intelligent and sentient creatures do not belong in zoos and circuses. Many European countries - France being the latest - have banned live animal performances, while zoos from Mendoza to Buenos Aires are releasing individual elephants to specialised sanctuaries. Rumours even circulated in summer 2021 that the UK, which holds 51 elephants, would ban zoo captivity from 2022, though no legislation has been forthcoming yet.