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 Flora
Born: 1982
Height: 8' 9" Flora was orphaned at two years old when her family was killed in a culling in Zimbabwe Africa. Her entire captive life has been spent traveling and performing with her namesake, Circus Flora. She is the youngest member of our African herd. Flora is a beautiful elephant weighing 10,000—pure muscle. She has a healthy set of ivory which is a little shorter than Zula's but longer than Tange's. When interacting with Zula she is usually the elephant whose trunk, head and ivory are held the highest. Biography Flora was born in the wilds in Zimbabwe Africa in 1982. At the age of two she was orphaned as result of a culling [mass killing] of all the adults and sub-adults in their family [herd]. Once orphaned, she was purchased by an elephant trainer and broker in Southern California. Flora was one of two baby elephants that were used to teach a course in elephant training. Ivor David Balding, founder of Circus Flora learned that a trained baby elephant was for sale and made arrangements to purchase her. He named her Flora, the name-sake of the circus he was responsible for creating. Carol Buckley, Sanctuary Director, and Tarra were present at the training school, demonstrating how to work a trained performing elephant. Carol was one of many people who participated in Flora's training sessions.
David Balding introduced Flora to the world of circus in 1985. Following her debut in Circus Flora she quickly became the star of the show and spent the next eighteen years performing under the big top. In addition to her on stage performances, Flora also starred in PeeWee Herman movie Big Top. She all but stole the show. After years of performing, Flora began to mature and life on the road no longer met her needs. David realized that Flora no longer enjoyed performing so in 2001 he began to research options for her retirement. Flora resided temporarily at the Miami Metro Zoo in Florida, while David searched for a permanent home for her. He was determined to find a home for Flora that would satisfy both her physical and psychological needs. During this time filmmakers Cristina Colissimo and Jordana Glick-Franzheim, of Los Angeles-based Crossover Films, documented Flora's journey from an orphaned baby to a circus superstar. The film is titled Flora's Story; From Circus to Sanctuary. Soon Ahali African Elephants, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization, was founded by a small group of individuals who adopted Flora in the hopes of providing her with a life where she could live freely. The Elephant Sanctuary was involved in assisting David in his search for a safe and healthy environment for Flora. The Sanctuary fully supported David's desire to send Flora back to Africa if that move would ensure that Flora would be safe in the wild environment. At one point it appeared that Flora could be successfully reintroduced to her homeland, but to everyone's disappointment that opportunity fell through. Once David recognized that Flora would not be going back to Africa he had the daunting task of finding a suitable placement for her in the States. Just about this time The Elephant Sanctuary decided to expand their facilities to include African elephants. As soon as David learned that the Sanctuary was going African he approached Carol and asked if there was room for Flora. The truth was there was not room. Carol explained that the recent expansion of land and fencing was incredibly expensive. As result, the African barn would be constructed to house only Tange and Zula. David asked, "What would it take to build a stall for Flora?" Carol knew the exact cost as she had only that day spoken with the contractor hired to build the barn. It would cost another $200,000 to add another stall for Flora. David responded, "If we raise the funds, will you add a stall for Flora?" The Sanctuary could not say no. After two years of searching, David had finally found a healthy environment for Flora to live out the remainder of her life. In May 2003 the plans were laid for Flora's retirement to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Ahali launched a campaign to raise the $200,000 needed to fund the construction of the additional stall for Flora in the Sanctuary's new state-of-the-art African elephant house. To date (August 2007) Ahali has raised $73,000 toward their commitment. In 2003 The Elephant Sanctuary expanded from a 200-acre habitat to an enormous 2,700-acre natural habitat preserve that can sustain up to 100 elephants of both species. The Sanctuary completed construction of the new African elephant house in December 2003. Tange and Zula, two African elephants from Chehaw Wild Animal Park in Georgia, were the first African elephants to take up residence in the Sanctuary's new eco-ele- friendly African house on February 19, 2004. Flora, who spent nearly two decades traveling with the circus, has finally found her African home and family.
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