Ever since I was a child elephants have been a very important animal in my life. Growing up, elephants were something that my grandparents absolutely loved. Every time they would give gifts to each other, it usually had something to do with elephants. It was kind of like their own love story. Both of my grandparents were like second parents to me, so their fascination with elephants became my fascination with elephants.
As a child, they never did share with me what in particular drew them to love elephants, but for elephants became a symbol for love. Their love, and it was something that to this day makes me think of my grandparents.
My grandmother has been gone for decades now, but my grandfather passed away just last year. Before he passed, the very last Christmas gift he gave my daughters was a sterling silver necklace with a little baby elephant on it. It was his way to tell my daughters to remember him after he was gone. It’s a necklace that both of my girls treasure to this day.
Because of my love of elephants, I was really excited when the Ringling Center for Conservation asked my family to visit them for a day trip to learn more about what they are doing to learn about elephants. I won’t lie, my eyes skimmed the email but the word elephants popped out with big bold letters. Elephants, I am going to get to visit with elephants. YES!
I would be fibbing to you guys if I told you that after my initial excitement that I wasn’t a little bit worried about going when I learned that this conservation center was owned by Ringling Brothers. The topic of circuses and elephant treatment by circuses has been causing quite a fuss over the years. Honestly, it’s one of the reasons why our family has chosen not to go to circuses in a while.
After initially thinking about this though, I wanted to learn directly from the horses mouth what Ringling Brothers was doing to help protect elephant populations so I could share this with you. I wasn’t going to go into the did elephant abuse happen or not, not because I didn’t want to ask the hard questions but because in my experience there are ALWAYS two sides to every story no matter how many videos, Facebook statuses, and other stuff you see on a topic. Rather than dig into that, I wanted to see first hand what Ringling was doing to help elephants.
It was a whirlwind romance at the Ringling Center for Elephant Conservation. We had about half a day to chat with the staff at the center, and of course that included playing with elephants. (More of that awesomeness later)
When we first arrived, we headed to the education building and chatted with Janice Aria, the head of animal stewardship. Janice had so much fun stuff to tell us about the center, plus she was really a fascinating person. Janice has been with Ringling Brothers for over forty years, and literally ran off to join the circus. She started as a clown, and moved her way up to working at the Conservation Center. We had a chance to chat over lunch, and her passion for elephants was so inspiring. It was also really neat to hear her life as a clown. She shared that being a clown was one of the most liberating experiences of her life as a tall gangly girl, she never quite felt like she fit in. Once she donned her clown makeup though she was able to express a side to herself that she had never before been comfortable to share. (Rock it, girl!)
During our time at the education center, we got to learn about the fact that there are the Ringling Center for Conservation has the largest Asian Elephant herd in the United States. They also work very closely with Sri Lanka (where the elephants are native) to help protect the species. Sadly, there are very few Asian elephants in nature anymore due to the overpopulation of Sri Lanka. Most live on man made preserves to help protect them for being killed for just being elephants or for their tusks.
Speaking of tusks, while we were in the center we also had a chance to lift an elephant tooth and the tip of an elephant tusk and OMG! I literally couldn’t lift the tusk tip off the table. I swear it weight about fifty pounds. The tooth wasn’t much lighter. Could you imagine having like a 1,000 pounds in your mouth and on your face? Talk about neck muscles!
One of the other projects that we got to learn about was the cancer research being done by Dr. Wendy Kiso. They’ve discovered a cancer fighting gene in elephants where they have over 40 copies of this gene while us piddly humans only have one. They are using this fact to study how eventually they can use this knowledge to help fight childhood cancers. Check out this cool video.
Our trip was really fascinating, and the passion of all the staff was contagious. You could tell they all really believed in the work that they were doing, and really felt like the elephants were a huge part of their family. The stories of watching elephants being born, and watching the staff’s faces light up as they would tell these stories really reminded me that passion work isn’t just a pipe dream. It’s something that everyone should strive for. Life gives you many paths in life, and you just need to keep searching until you’ve found something that lights your heart on fire every time you do it.
I wish I could’ve taken each and everyone of you to meet the awesome staff at the Ringling Brothers Center for Elephant Conservation. It wasn’t just about the cool side trips watching elephants eat popsicles or getting to give an elephant a bath. It was about seeing how the CEC was using their 200+ acres to give these elephants a home as they are being retired from the circus. They are making sure they are living comfortable, enriched lives and that they learn as much as they can about how to protect the Asian elephant species.
I’ve seen with my own eyes how passionate the staff I met at Ringling CEC about their elephant family, and it was an honor to meet the elephants themselves. It’s not an experience that I am sure to forget.
Want to learn more about the CEC? Check them out here :
- Facebook: Ringling Elephant Center
- Instagram: @RinglingElephantCenter
- Website: www.ringlingelephantcenter.com
Leave a Reply