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The Elephant Sanctuary FAQs
- How
suitable for elephants is the
weather in Hohenwald, TN?
The weather in Hohenwald, TN is quite similar to the weather in natural areas
where elephants live, with comparable temperatures that range from 30 degrees
to 110 degrees. Both Southeast Asia and Hohenwald, TN are classified as sub-tropical,
sharing similar climate, weather conditions, terrain, vegetation and growing
season; both provide suitable conditions for elephants to thrive. Only in the
month of January is it cold enough during the day for the elephants to seek the
shelter of their heated barn. Even on a cold day, the elephants spend extended
periods outside.
 See more detailed information on the weather.
Why Hohenwald is good for elephants.
- Will
you ever have public viewing?
We plan to create an education
complex where the public can come to learn about elephants. Visitors
will have an opportunity to view the elephants and their habitat
through cameras strategically placed throughout the habitat.
- How
do you know how the elephants feel?
Elephants are very good communicators.
They convey information
about how they feel through
verbalization and body
language, much the same way as humans do. Over time, living with
and caring for elephants makes caregivers sensitive to the elephants’ moods
and needs.
- How
many elephants live at the Sanctuary?
Seventeen elephants currently live
at the Sanctuary.
- What
is "Acres for Elephants"?
Acres for Elephants is a fund-raising
campaign which helps to pay off
the debt on the newly-acquired
land.
- How
far do they walk in a day?
Each elephant is an individual,
but on average the elephants that
live at the Sanctuary walk 3 -
15 miles each day.
- What
is an elephant's natural habitat
like?
An elephant's natural habitat is
much like the Sanctuary; pastures,
wooded areas, streams and ponds.
This is why this piece of property
was chosen for the project.
- Why
can’t people come to see the elephants? (But we wouldn’t
expect them to do anything; we
just want to see them.)
As a true Sanctuary we are not open to the public. The public's affection and
fascination for elephants is shared by many. This fascination to see elephants
up-close and personal has resulted in disastrous consequences for captive elephants.
Facilities exhibiting elephants have put the needs of the public before that
of the elephants in their care. As a direct result of the public's desire to
get closer, elephants live a miserable life; confined to small places, forced
to submit to human keepers and fed only processed food due to restricted living
space. We strive to raise public awareness about the needs of elephants that
includes their right to privacy from a curious public.
- What
is a day like in the life of
a Sanctuary caregiver?
The
elephant's morning begins around
6:30 AM with breakfast, supplements,
a bath and any procedure required,
such as a foot soak. The girls
who have elected to spend the
night inside the barn are pampered
and ready to go outside around
7:30 AM. As one or two caregivers
tend to the needs of the elephants
inside, another loads up the groceries
on our "meals-on-wheels" 4-wheeler
and heads out into the habitat
to find the other elephants
and give them their breakfast.
It is standard to have a variety
of things being done all at
the same time. The elephants
dictate what happens and when.
One caregiver usually starts
cleaning the barn while another
cleans the area outside the
barn and refreshes the water
in the water troughs.
The barn is cleaned daily.
The project consists of sweeping
all of the manure and soiled
hay from the barn floor into
the track which runs along
the back wall of the barn.
Once the manure is run out
of the track the floor is washed.
A pressure washer is used to
clean underneath and on top of the rubber floor mats which cover the
entire barn floor. Once the cleaning is complete the manure
track is run out into a manure
spreader. The spreader is driven
out into the pasture where
it is used to fertilize the fields. The entire cleaning
process, from beginning to
end, takes two caregivers nearly
four hours to complete.
At the same time the barn is
being cleaned another caregiver makes sure that all of the elephants
outside have wandered away from the barn. If an elephant remains
close to the barn the caregiver encourages her to go off and explore,
graze and interact with the other elephants. The way this is accomplished
is with a 4-wheeler and some produce. The elephants are attracted
to the noise created by the 4-wheeler. Sissy and Winkie will
follow it anywhere. Once the elephants have been led away from
the barn and into the habitat the caregiver leaves and the elephants
begin to engage in normal elephant behavior.
Afternoons are consumed by
diet preparation, cleaning, restocking, facility maintenance, and
record keeping.
Around 4pm caregivers begin
the process of preparing for
the 6pm feeding. Some elephants
choose to remain outside 24 hours a day while others come inside
after dark. In an effort to encourage the elephants to utilize
the habitat, their diets are brought to them. Baskets of produce
and grain are labeled and placed on the 4-wheeler. A small wagon
is towed behind with bales
of hay, browse and other dietary
supplements. Foot-soak buckets
and foot-trimming tools are
also loaded up for the elephant requiring
a foot soak or trim. Two
caregivers head out in search
of elephants. When located
the elephants are given their
supplements, grain, produce and
any medical procedure required out in the habitat.
There is another feeding at
10:30pm. The routine is nearly
identical as the 6pm feeding. The supplies are loaded on the 4-wheeler
and the elephants are located in the habitat. Since elephants only
sleep 4 hours in a 24-hour period it is nice to have activity in
and around the barn for extended periods of time throughout the
day and night. The elephants do a great deal of interacting
with each other during the early hours of the morning.
- How
many acres does the Sanctuary own?
The Sanctuary currently owns
2,700 acres, complete
with a 25-acre spring-fed
lake. The Asian elephants
currently have free-choice
access to 222 acres of
this land while the African
elephant habitat encompasses
300 acres. Now that the
new land is fenced, the
elephants have access
to the entire 2,700-acre
habitat.
- Once
the expansion is complete, how many elephants can live on that amount
of land?
The Sanctuary will be able to care
for over 100 elephants on the expanded land.
- What
countries do elephants come from?
Elephants are indigenous
to Southeast Asia and
Africa.
- How
long are the elephants inside the barn each day?
Some days the elephants are
not in the barn at all. In the dead of winter they are usually inside
from sunset until 9 a.m.
- Why
are you helping elephants when there are so many people who
need help?
All of the creatures of our
planet need and deserve
protection. We help elephants
because that is where
our expertise lies. By helping elephants we are also helping people
to understand the interconnectedness of all creatures.
- How
do you find out about elephants that need to be rescued?
There are less than 600 captive
elephants living in zoos
and circuses across the United States. We are aware of all of them,
their condition and their circumstances. Some we know about first-hand,
others from information provided by people interested in animal
welfare.
- Is
it safe to transport an elephant in the back of a semi trailer
or railroad car?
Although elephants are intelligent
and physically coordinated and can balance in a moving vehicle for
short periods of time, prolonged transportation in a moving vehicle
can cause fatigue. Circus elephants are transported nearly year
round. The travel can become grueling, causing undue stress for
the elephant. An elephant’s need to walk, posture comfortably,
consume live vegetation and socialize with other elephants is not
possible when confined in a transport container.
- Do
elephants lie down in the trailer?
Most elephants do not lie
down during transit,
which disrupts their
sleep cycle, making fatigue
common.
- Is
it true that lying down for a long time can hurt them?
Lying down is normal, but
staying on their side for prolonged periods can put pressure on
their internal organs causing labored breathing and reducing circulation
throughout the body.
- Who
designed and built the elephant barns at the Sanctuary?
Scott Blais and Carol Buckley,
co-founders/co-directors of the Sanctuary, designed and contracted
the construction of the barns. All the steel work and concrete work
was done in-house by Scott Blais.
- What
is the capacity of the current Asian elephant barn?
Thirty elephants.
- What
do the Sanctuary elephants eat and how much?
Elephants are herbivores
by nature. They consume approximately 150 pounds of plant material,
fruits, vegetables and grain each day. With the exception of infants
that nurse for nearly six years, they eat no diary products or meat.
In the wild and at the Sanctuary the elephants eat grass, leaves,
small tree branches, bamboo/cane, grapevines, root plants and wild
fruits (blueberries, blackberries, persimmons). We supplement their
diet with hay, mixed grains and produce.
- How
much does their care cost per month?
Food, dietary supplements
and regular veterinary care cost approximately $1,000 per elephant,
per month. This does not include operating costs and salaries.
- How
much water do they drink?
A full-grown elephant will
drink approximately 30 gallons of water per day.
- How
do you medicate them?
We use homeopathy to care
for and treat our elephants; orally and by injection.
- How
well can they hear?
An elephant’s hearing is quite keen. For example, they can
detect infrasound communications traveling through the earth for
distances up to 30 miles.
- Do
they come and go as they please?
The elephants have free-choice
access from their barn to their habitat except on very cold nights
when we must close the barn doors to contain the heat for their
protection.
- Do
they sleep outside?
When temperatures rise above
38 degrees the elephants usually sleep outside.
- What
is the gestation period for elephants?
22 months
- Are
there any plans for a breeding program at the Sanctuary?
We believe that elephants
belong in the wild, not captivity. We do not support captive breeding
of elephants because there is no program to reintroduce elephants
back into the wild. Therefore, there is no conservation effort for
this species. They are being bred to be on exhibit for their entire
life in zoos and circuses.
- Is
their skin tough?
An elephant’s skin is not tough. It is sensitive and vulnerable
to sun burn, insect bites and cuts and scrapes from adventures in
the woods.
- Why
do they throw dirt on their backs?
The natural behavior of dusting
is what elephants do to protect their skin from sunburn, insect
bites and the cold.
- Do
they ever get a bath?
Any elephant inside the barn
in the morning receives a bath with a warm water hose. They also
bathe in the ponds and stream of their own accord whenever they
choose, nearly every day.
- Do
they ever fight with each other?
Female Asian elephants thrive
in a group and seldom act aggressively towards each other. The elephants
at the Sanctuary do not fight because they have room to retreat
if they do not get along with another elephant. Fighting tends to
take place in situations where the elephants are cramped together
in a small space and where the keepers use dominance and attempt
to control them.
- Are
they afraid of the dogs?
Most elephants arrive at
the Sanctuary afraid of dogs but they soon become desensitized and
accept them. Some elephants, like Tarra and Sissy, grow to love
the dogs.
- Are
dogs afraid of them?
Some dogs are afraid of some
elephants but generally they coexist fine.
- How
do you keep the barn so clean?
A lot of hard work goes into
keeping the barn clean. The barn is equipped with a manure removal
track and a pressure washer. The floors are cleaned every day and
disinfected once a week.
- What
are the licensing and fencing requirements?
We are licensed by the Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture.
Both agencies require an eight-foot high perimeter fence to keep
people out.
- Do
you take Asian and African elephants?
Until Jan 2004 we only accepted
Asian elephants. In Feb 2004 we completed our first African
elephant barn and accepted our first African elephants; Tange, Zula
and Flora. Since it is not natural for the two species to
co-mingle we provide separate, fenced off areas from each other.
- How
are Asians different from Africans?
The species are different
in many ways; physically, emotionally, intellectually as well as
diet, behavior and language. It is accurate to say that the only
thing they have in common is a trunk.
- How
many employees do you have?
We have 22 employees.
- Where
do you find interns and employees?
Prospective employees and
interns find us as result
of newspaper articles,
television coverage and our web site.
- How
old are the girls?
Tarra - born 1974
Shirley - born 1948
Bunny - born 1952
Sissy - born 1968
Winkie - born 1966
Tange - born 1973
Flora - born 1982
Misty - born 1964 (estimated)
Minnie - born 1966
Lottie - born 1963
Liz - born 1957
Debbie - born 1971
Ronnie - born 1966
Billie - born 1953
Frieda - born 1966
Dulary - born 1963
- How
long do elephants live?
In the wild elephants live
60 to 70 years.
- Do
they live longer in captivity or in the wild?
They definitely live longer,
healthier lives in the
wild. Sadly, the average
life of a captive elephant
is usually cut short. The average age of a captive elephant is only
40 years.
- Why
don’t you have any male elephants?
In the wild female Asian
elephants live in matriarchal
herds, separate from the males. At the Sanctuary, we make every
effort to create a situation that duplicates the wild.
- Where
do most of your donations come from?
We are a non-profit organization.
All of our donations come from individuals from all around the world.
We receive no federal or state funding.
- What
is Project Diane?
Project DIANE is a consortium
of teleconference providers and users who make teleconferencing
available to students of all ages. Teleconferencing is our number
one educational tool.
- How
do you get the elephants to do what you want them to do?
We employ passive control
in the care and management of our elephants. At no time do we command
our elephants or force them against their will. The elephants are
taught through a system of positive reinforcement and respect. Once
the elephant understands what is being asked of him/her, the caregiver
simply makes a request and the elephant is free to respond or not.
- How much do the elephants weigh?
Tarra – 8,600
Shirley – 9,000
Sissy – 8,000
Winkie– 8,400
Tange - 9,200
Flora - 10,000
Misty – 10,200
Minnie - 11,130
Lottie - 8,550
Liz - 6,020
Debbie - 10,380
Ronnie - 7,880
Billie - 8,450
Frieda - 6,370
Dulary - 8,508
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