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  • BBC Wildlife Magazine

    GREAT ESCAPE

    Mar 10, 2022 7 minutes
    Words by MARK STRATTON

    GANDHI, A 52-YEAR-OLD ASIAN elephant, is picking at windfall apples when an intruder darts through her enclosure. It’s Woody, the farm cat. Ghandi’s ears flare and she swivels, chasing the fleeing feline towards her heated barn. She plunges indoors and doesn’t reappear, likely preferring the warmth to the chill of an autumn day in southern France.

    Ghandi was the first elephant to take up residence here at Elephant Haven, a sanctuary co-founded by ex-zookeeper Sofie Goetghebeur and Tony Verlust in 2016. It’s the largest elephant sanctuary in western Europe, comprising 29ha of beautiful mixed woodland and ponds. Ghandi arrived here in October 2021 from a cash-strapped Brittany Zoo. She had been spirited away from her mother, likely in Thailand, when a baby, in 1973, and has spent her entire life in captivity. “Before being rescued, Gandhi stood around with little energy. Now look at her. She has new life,” says Goetghebeur.

    ELEPHANT HAVEN REPRESENTS a glittering template of what life in captivity could look like for elephants at a time when we are realising that these intelligent and sentient creatures do not belong in zoos

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