BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM
Kariba has lived alone in a Belgian zoo for years. Julie has been with the Cardinali circus in Portugal since 1988, when she was caught in the wild and sold to a German zoo before the family acquired her. Both are African elephants in their 40s. And both are about to get a very different life.
Two elephants, one turning point
Next month, Julie and Kariba will move to a sanctuary run by the charity Pangea in the Alentejo region of Portugal, about 124 miles (200 kilometers) east of Lisbon. It’s Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary, ten years in development, built on a former cattle ranch that conservation workers have been restoring ahead of their arrival.
The sanctuary won’t be open to the public. The goal, says Pangea managing director Kate Moore, is autonomy. “Kariba and Julie will live in an expansive natural habitat where they can roam freely, bathe and socialise in compatible groups,” she said. “That autonomy is really critical but they will also have expert care as well. Elephants are one of the most sentient and intelligent animals on earth and so they have very complex needs.”
What captivity actually costs
The life expectancy gap alone is startling. African female elephants in captivity live an average of 17 years. In the wild, excluding human-caused deaths, the figure is 56. The first-year mortality rate for captive-born Asian elephants in North America and the EU runs around 30 percent. For wild African elephants, it’s 10 to 15 percent.
Across Europe, around 600 elephants remain in captivity. Thirty-six are in solitary confinement in zoos. Around 40 are still performing in circuses. Many were caught in the wild in the 1980s, the same decade Julie and Kariba arrived, and they’re now approaching the end of their natural lifespans.
A ban with nowhere to send them
Portugal banned wild animals in circuses, with the law coming into full effect in 2025. Julie became the last animal rehomed under that legislation, through a voluntary agreement between Pangea and the Cardinali family.
“This has not been an easy decision, as she has been a deeply loved member of our family for decades,” said Vítor Hugo Cardinali, the circus director. “But we believe it is the right decision for Julie.”
The problem Moore keeps running into: bans don’t work if there’s nowhere for the animals to go. Countries pass legislation and then find themselves stuck because no infrastructure exists to take the animals in. “Circuses and zoos are reaching the point where keeping elephants is no longer possible or appropriate,” she said. “Working in partnership with owners to find the right solution is central to how we operate.”
Room to roam, and to reshape the land
The sanctuary starts at 70 acres (28 hectares), with plans to reach around 1,000 acres (405 hectares) as fundraising continues. At that size, it could support 20 to 30 elephants.
The site is in a region where straight-tusked elephants once ranged across the Iberian Peninsula, until around 40,000 years ago. Pangea has been restoring the land using rewilding principles, and the elephants are expected to help, not just as residents but as animals that actively change what grows around them.
“We know elephants can normally strengthen the ecosystems if we get the stocking density of the elephants right,” said Moore. “It gives us this really interesting opportunity to see how the elephants are responding to the land and vice versa.”
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