Any chance anyone knows what the origin of these two elephants is? I have the memory of reading they used to be circus animals, but I might have made that up.
@SivatheriumGuy Gitana (the tailless elephant) was confiscated from a circus in Germany in 2013 and taken to Pairi Daiza, she was born in the wild and was likely taken to the circus at a young age. Although the article below doesn't mention it, I remember reading Gitana lost her tail to frostbite at the circus.
The other elephant, Suzy, lived at Harry Malter family park, a small attraction park and zoo owned by the Malter family in Destelbergen, near Ghent, Belgium, until 2010. At that attraction park she was used for kid rides (which I actually did myself as a kid) as well as starring in some movies and commercials, and making appearances at events like agricultural fairs. Suzy was also caught from the wild and transferred to Europe at a young age.
The best sources I could quickly find are these pages, in German:
