Portugal: First cow elephant moves into European large-scale protected area

Between Vila Viçosa and Alandroal in the district of Évora, the elephant sanctuary Pangea has taken in its first resident: the cow elephant Julie.

There she already moves largely self-determined across the extensive terrain and has taken her first mud bath.

Over forty years in captivity

Julie came to Portugal from southern Africa as a very young animal and had been in service with the Circo Víctor Hugo Cardinali since 1988. When Portugal's ban on wild animals in circuses came fully into force in 2024, she was retired. That same year her last remaining companion died. Nevertheless, she stayed in the care of her owner, simply because there was no place for her to go.

What these decades cost cannot be quantified precisely. Kate Moore, managing director of Pangea, told the news agency AP that elephants in the wild often live to over 70 years old, whereas animals from captivity often reach a considerably lower life expectancy. How much time Julie still has is therefore uncertain. In her first week at Pangea, however, she was said to have shown great energy. Given her history, she will need support with health and mobility problems, of the kind common in elephants of her age and captivity history.

A law alone is not enough

The Portuguese parliament banned wild animals in circuses back in 2018, with cross-party support. The ban only came fully into force in 2024, however, to allow the businesses time to adapt. It is notable that the law combined the ban with a pathway for the animals and the people affected, including retraining support for circus employees.

The step from theory into practice nonetheless proved difficult. Only now has Julie found a suitable place to live. Her relocation took place on the basis of a voluntary agreement with the circus. Circus director Víctor Hugo Cardinali described the decision as difficult but right; he remains involved in her settling-in period.

With Julie's arrival, no more wild animals live in Portuguese circuses. According to its own statements, Pangea had already helped at the start of 2026 to place Sona, Portugal's last circus tiger, in a specialised sanctuary in Spain.

This is precisely the point that reaches beyond Portugal. A ban without a receiving structure is a ban on paper. Whoever prohibits the keeping of wild animals must also say where the animals are to go. To this day, that equation does not add up in Europe.

400 hectares, room for up to 50 animals

The site covers around 400 hectares. According to the Olsen Animal Trust, one of the founding members, it is intended to accommodate up to 50 elephants in the future. Later this year, Kariba is expected, another African cow elephant, also captured in the wild and around 40 years old. She currently lives alone in a zoo in Belgium. An abscess on one leg has so far prevented a safe journey; it must first be treated.

Pangea describes itself as «Europe's first large-scale elephant sanctuary». The wording is deliberately chosen: sanctuaries for elephants already exist in Europe, such as Elephant Haven in France, but they are considerably smaller. Large-scale facilities of this magnitude have so far existed mainly in Asia, Africa and America. Following this model, the animals are to roam through a near-natural, expansive habitat, forage for food and maintain social contacts, accompanied by a specialised care team. The concept is complemented by a habitat-restoration programme that is also intended to benefit native wild animals.

The sanctuary is run by the Associação Natureza Pangea in Portugal, supported by The Pangea Trust, registered in Great Britain. The founding members include the Born Free Foundation, the Olsen Animal Trust, the Fondation Brigitte Bardot and World Animal Protection. For the time being, the area remains closed to visitors so that the animals can have peace to settle in.

Over 600 elephants in captivity

Julie is not an isolated case, but the exception. According to the Olsen Animal Trust, over 600 elephants are kept in captivity in European zoos and circuses, 36 of them in solitary confinement. Many have lived for decades in the same small, barren enclosures, in the name of entertainment or a claimed species conservation. Pangea has so far identified 15 animals as priority candidates for relocation.

For the vast majority of these animals, nothing changes with the Alentejo for now. Further articles on the keeping of wild animals can be found in our categories Zoo and under Animal rights.

Editorial comment

The images of Julie's first mud bath are beautiful. But they are also the admission of a collective failure. A wild animal, captured as a calf in Africa, paraded for decades for amusement, receives at the end of its life a piece of freedom on borrowed time. This is not a triumph, it is damage limitation.

The mechanism is the same one we know from the debate around hobby hunting: animals are declared objects of human entertainment, and only when the social pressure becomes great enough does the correction come. Too late for those affected. The real question is not how we can grant Julie a dignified old age, but why there had to be a Julie at all.

Further articles

• Zoos cause animals more harm than you may realise
• Justice for zoo animals
• Is it time to ban zoos?
• Finland: zoo wants to send giant pandas back to China over upkeep costs
• Keeping elephants in zoos must finally be stopped!
• Killing of surplus animals – zoos fail at species conservation