I visited ALS this summer. My daughter is in college studying to be an elephant keeper, and she knows the entire AZA studbook, all of the Asian elephants and their lineage throughout North America. We have been to many of the roughly dozen US zoos breeding Asians, but she has wanted nothing more than to go to Rockton to see this spectacular success story. They have bred 17 calves over the last 20 years, second only to Ringling's Elephant Conservation Center in Florida, which has bred 26.
I have to say I was simply amazed. The physical husbandry and mental stimulation these elephants get is wonderful. They have a state-of-the-art indoor barn and 300 acres with a lake off-exhibit that used to be a camping area. This is in addition to the spacious exhibit that the matriarchal herd is generally in, the ampitheatre, and the huge lake where about half of the elephants walk, trunk-to-tail, each morning and afternoon to take a public swim. Yes, the facility offers elephant rides, which activists routinely compare to prostitution, but the two grand old ladies being ridden looked so positively radiant that my daughter--who long opposed this--melted and eagerly suggested that we take a ride on each! There is no stereotypical behavior like swaying or rocking usually found in zoos, and there has been no incidence of TB or the elephant herpes virus that has been fatal for about a third of the calves born in the US in the last 20 years. And each elephant is so well-behaved and well-disciplined that they make most humans look impulsive. 6-year-old Chuck and 16-year-old George walked patiently around the entire ampitheatre letting visitors touch them and ask questions. And while activists will insist that the presence of the bullhook means that the elephants are tortured and beaten to achieve this degree of training, there is simply no evidence of that here. These elephants clearly adore their keepers; during one of the performances we saw repeatedly over two days, a keeper showed how mahouts got up on the elephant's shoulders to ride. Elephant George looked up at his keeper Steve with a look of pure love each time, as if worried he was ok each time. ALS is virtually the only facility in the US or Canada that holds elephants that has not been mentioned with derision in the In Defense of Animals "worst" lists each year. What they do is SO good.
Johnson is the father of Nellie, Hannah, and Anna May; George is Gigi's father. (Since Johnson and Emily are half-siblings by Kitty, they can't be bred.)
I don't know if visitors have any idea that ALS's Charlie Gray is world-renowned for his work with these elephants and his HUGE contribution to this field. This may be a for-profit facility unlike most zoos, but it is absolutely giving more than it gets by giving so freely to the cause of saving this species. He has sent one of his first calves to Europe, where as a poster said above, Nickolai has contributed significantly to a static gene pool. In addition, Gray has loaned stud Rex to Oklahoma City so they could start a breeding program that has now produced two female calves. Gray did the same thing for the Albuquerque Zoo in New Mexico, giving them two young studs, Albert and Samson. With only 25 male breeding-capable male Asian elephants in all of the US--and many of those in private circuses--these loans are contributing in a very tangible way to the survival of the species. To my knowledge, except for the relatively short loan of Calvin from Calgary, ALS has yet to receive any reciprocal benefit from its incredible generosity.
This place is a treasure, one I wish could be duplicated everywhere. It was a 10-hour drive for us and I have chronic arthritis, but I find myself wanting to go back. And if there weren't such restriction on foreigners getting permanent jobs in Canada, my daughter would be thrilled to devote her career to elephants there under Charlie Gray's tutelage. Experiencing elephants at such close range and in such family groups elicits an emotional connection to the species from visitors that is sure to instill a desire to save this species.
