Barack Video
Barack was the first elephant at the center conceived by artificial insemination.
Update: Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey has just announced the company will put on their last performances in May 2017. Citing an overall decline in ticket sales exacerbated by the retirement of their elephants, Ringling said in a statement the 146-year-old circus had become “an unsustainable business for the company.” Ringling retired its elephants to a facility in central Florida last year. See our coverage about the decision and the facility.
POLK CITY, FloridaBeneath a sky of clotted clouds, in a verdant pasture, a man squats at the foot of an old elephant to give her a pedicure.
With a heavy metal file David Polk shaves and shapes her horny nails, five on each front foot, four in the back. With a small curved knife he scrapes gunk from beneath her brittle cuticles—the only spot where an elephant sweats—and trims them back. Says Polk, "Old ladies' cuticles are like old men's hair. They grow in every direction."
Baby is her name. Until her retirement some months ago, she performed for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus for most of the past 46 years. In recent years she'd traveled 18,000 miles for shows in
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