Circus animals in zoos

elefante

elefante

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
It seems that circuses are starting to go by the wayside (at least in the USA). If that is the case, do you think most of the animals will end up in zoos or sanctuaries? It seems that if circuses do close up eventually it could be a good source for more elephants for zoos.
 
Circus elephants certainly could contribute to zoo collections if that were to happen, some zoos probably already have former circus elephants. However with other animals it's a little more questionable, circuses don't breed animals in a way that is conservation minded most of the time. Circus tigers are mostly mixed and genetically useless.
 
Another aspect would be care; circus animals would, depending on the situation and species, be trained and have experienced things very different to those brought up in a zoo. Thus there's a strong chance that the circus stock might not integrate with zoo stock socially speaking (for those species which are social). Some might also have specific care requirements or be far more used to and expecting of human contact than most zoos allow their staff to have.

So there's going to be a bit of a disconnection and that's before one gets to the aspects raised above about the lack of parental information. Even for a prolific species the lack of a suitable hereditary would be a risk as you could breed in defaults or weakness; a problem even more critical if you've got a very limited population to start with.



UK side I seem to recall hearing that animals are now if not actually banned; they are at a point where its not possible for most circuses to retain them*. However that aside most circuses are dead now. The old travelling circus is gone in many areas; whilst there's a few larger attractions that are holding on and some are doing well; but they are far from what they once were (indeed one could argue that a more modern; sedentary circus could potentially offer a good lifestyle for performance animals).


*at least for anything exotic; horses and regular domestic species, I think, are still allowed
 
In the old days, circuses owned their entire menagerie, but they had winter quarters to hold them during the off-season. Today, most circuses do not own their animal stock. Instead, the animals are owned by the trainers/presenters, who have a seasonal performance contract with the circus. The exception was Ringling Bros., who does own their elephant herd. But the lions, tigers, horses, dogs, exotics, etc., are all privately owned and leased by the circus for a season of performances.
 
Good to see San Antonio got some companions for Lucky. In response to the post about the animals not being bred for conservation purposes I can see circus tigers in zoos being problematic. However, that may not be the case with things like lions, bears, or elephants.
 
elefante said:
Good to see San Antonio got some companions for Lucky. In response to the post about the animals not being bred for conservation purposes I can see circus tigers in zoos being problematic. However, that may not be the case with things like lions, bears, or elephants.
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Agreed on both points, though I wonder if zoos would be reluctant to breed lions and bears that they may not know the lineages of. Since the circus owns the elephants, I would think there would be better records on them and I imagine that zoos that take in younger ones (SAZ only took older females) might be up for breeding them.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
Agreed on both points, though I wonder if zoos would be reluctant to breed lions and bears that they may not know the lineages of. Since the circus owns the elephants, I would think there would be better records on them and I imagine that zoos that take in younger ones (SAZ only took older females) might be up for breeding them.
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To clarify and add to MightyOrca's points: AZA does not support the breeding of unpedigreed lions; the pedigree population is already larger than it needs to be and unpedigreed breeding would simply lead to unnecessary population excess. AZA does not support the breeding of brown or American black bears at all (the species that are used in circuses here) because there are more than enough orphan, problem, and private sector rescue bears to supply zoo demand. Ringling's elephant breeding center does record parentage and the like; as such, they could be candidates for inclusion in the breeding program.
 
The Phoenix Zoo has been home to a couple of Ringling Brothers elephants for several years now, including one that killed a keeper while at the farm in Florida. They also had a brother and sister (only the sister now) lions that were part of the pet trade and had been born in an apartment in Pennsylvania. They wouldn't breed them (obviously not to each other) to other lions because their background is not known.

Lions, Tigers and Bears in California is about to get 3 tigers that were part of a traveling circus. They haven't said which one, but the point is, yes, they're going to sanctuaries. I don't know if they'll go to regular zoos, though.

Coelacanth18 said:
To clarify and add to MightyOrca's points: AZA does not support the breeding of unpedigreed lions; the pedigree population is already larger than it needs to be and unpedigreed breeding would simply lead to unnecessary population excess. AZA does not support the breeding of brown or American black bears at all (the species that are used in circuses here) because there are more than enough orphan, problem, and private sector rescue bears to supply zoo demand. Ringling's elephant breeding center does record parentage and the like; as such, they could be candidates for inclusion in the breeding program.
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azcheetah2 said:
The Phoenix Zoo has been home to a couple of Ringling Brothers elephants for several years now, including one that killed a keeper while at the farm in Florida. They also had a brother and sister (only the sister now) lions that were part of the pet trade and had been born in an apartment in Pennsylvania. They wouldn't breed them (obviously not to each other) to other lions because their background is not known.

Lions, Tigers and Bears in California is about to get 3 tigers that were part of a traveling circus. They haven't said which one, but the point is, yes, they're going to sanctuaries. I don't know if they'll go to regular zoos, though.
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When there's some kind of large scale animal rehoming, I think most of them do end up going to sanctuaries. Zoos are more limited in how much space they can give to certain species. (since the primary goal of zoos is to educate the public, they have to ensure their collection is diverse. Not a lot of zoos are gonna want to keep 20 tigers) And as already mentioned, any zoo that wants to breed lions and tigers won't be taking animals from these situations. (though I know there are some zoos that take them)
 
The Barcelona Zoo is home to an African bush elephant and two brown bears that are circus rescues; all three of them have behavioral stereotypies (head bobbing and log sucking respectively)
Also, the CRARC (reptile rescue and conservation center) has a young nile crocodile that's also a circus animal.
 
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