- [Announcer] Funding for "Georgia Outdoors" has been made possible in part by the Imlay Foundation, and from viewers like you.

(gentle music) - In Southwest Georgia, near Bainbridge, there's a town you may well have never heard of, while on the outskirts of that town there's an elephant refuge that you might not know exists.

Well, we were there from the day the refuge started building when the fences went up, until several years later when the elephants came in.

Near the Georgia Florida line is the small town of Attapulgus.

It's mostly suburbs and rural land.

As of 2020, Attapulgus had a population of 454.

On a foggy morning in early December, when temperatures were unseasonably warm, we headed out to Elephant Refuge North America.

We got there just in time to catch up with Carol Buckley, as she headed out to feed the elephants.

This is Bo, a retired circus elephant, following Carol and the food.

Carol is the founder and CEO of this sanctuary.

She is also head of Elephant Aid International, which does a lot of work helping elephants in Asia.

She feeds the elephants twice a day, and Carol is picky about what they get.

Elephants need abrasive vegetation to wear their teeth down.

They get six sets of molars in their lifetime.

The older teeth need to be worn down by the time a new set is trying to push up.

This is just supplemental food.

Most of their diet comes from grazing, which they do for hours every day.

This is Tarra, the other elephant.

Tarra is a female that may well be Carol's best friend.

That leads to an amazing story about this elephant and Carol that I'll get to later.

We were with Carol years ago when the sanctuary was under construction.

You're in Georgia.

We get to have Elephants in Georgia, who knew?

- And what a perfect place.

I mean we're talking about the climate, the topography, the vegetation, the rainfall, everything.

The mild winters, the 50 inches of rain here, humidity all of these things that are very important for elephants.

And of course this piece of land is just glorious.

- [Sharon] How many acres?

- [Carol] 850 acres.

And it is nearly all usable by the elephants.

So there's no extremes.

There's the rolling hills, a gentle up and down, and you look you've got this nice rolling hill that goes down and then you see really dense wooded area.

You have a spring head right there and a creek that runs out of it.

- Two sets of fences around the entire property grading the land, building an elephant barn, it took a lot of planning and a lot of donations to make this happen.

Then Carol had to wait until 2021 to get elephants.

The first is a castrated male elephant named Bo.

She was expecting females, but watch this video and you'll witness his charm.

Remember I told you, there was a backstory about Tarra.

Carol met Tarra in 1974 at a tire dealership.

So you and Tarra have a special bond.

You rescued her from a tire dealership.

- Well, I met Tarra when she was less than a year old.

I lived a block away.

I was going to school to study exotic animal training.

I found out about her, and she was on display at a tire store.

I volunteered my time is what I did.

She was on a bottle, and she needed someone to clean up after her.

And I jumped on it and I did not see it as a rescue.

I just saw it as an opportunity to spend time with this baby elephant.

And as time passed very, very shortly after, I became very overprotective because I started to learn about elephants.

And I started to learn what captivity means to them and her circumstances, what might result if she remained in her circumstances.

After about two years, her owner agreed to sell her to me.

And he knew I was gonna give her a different life, and she deserved it.

- [Sharon] She trained Tarra and they performed at various venues including an appearance on "Little House on the Prairie."

Oh, and that is Carol in the red outfit at yet another appearance.

There were a lot of them.

They were popular this woman and her elephant, but Carol could tell Tarra was getting bored.

- Then I'd been trying to figure out, what is the something else that you do for captive elephants?

So I created Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

It started with 113 acres and I said to Tarra, "This is it, this is it.

You're not performing anymore."

So she was retired at 21.

- Wow.

- Yeah and she really paved the way.

- [Sharon] They were together 36 years.

But the sanctuary ended its relationship with Carol and refused to let her take Tarra.

To cope, Carol went to Asia for weeks at a time to work with captive elephants and their handlers.

She poured her heart into making the lives of captive elephants better.

Half of her life was in Asia and half of it back here.

- Every morning when I wake up in the USA, there was one thing that is on my mind, and that is Tarra and my life with Tarra, and when will that come back?

When will we be together again?

- [Sharon] It took 11 years of legal wrangling but it finally led to this.

Tarra arrived at the sanctuary, and picked up with Carol like old times.

And here she is in Georgia running beside Carol's cart, the two girls together again.

- [Carol] Woo hoo, Tarra!

(Carol laughs) - [Sharon] We got to see the bond Carol, Tarra and now Bo have developed.

- So it's time to water the elephants.

It's one way to really build relationship with them, is to do personal things with them.

Yes, they can drink out of the water trough themself, but for me to come and offer them the water, builds trust between them.

So the elephants are all different in how they like to drink.

Some like to drink out of a trough, some don't.

Some like to have the water right into their nose.

That's how Bo likes it, huh Bo?

Hello, big man.

You look a little sleepy.

Oh, we're gonna back up.

He wants to reach over.

There we go.

What a good man.

Very thirsty boy.

- [Sharon] An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose.

They use it to smell, breathe, drink, trumpet, and grab things like food.

There are about 40,000 muscles in that trunk.

- There we go.

Good boy.

That feels good, doesn't it?

Huh?

Yeah, good boy.

Good boy, Bo.

Whoa.

Good boy, Bo.

Silly, silly man.

Silly man.

Thank you for letting me wash your face.

That's all you want, huh?

No more?

Look at you.

You need a whole body bath.

Mala, where's your toy?

Where's your toy?

It's out here somewhere.

Where is it?

- [Sharon] The ease with which Carol mingles with elephants is sweet to watch.

She talks to them as if they are her children, and I guess in a way they are.

- Silly boy.

Very silly boy.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Woo hoo, you got me too.

Now that feels good, doesn't it?

See?

Doesn't that feel good?

Yeah, a nice bath.

Whoa.

Yeah, good boy.

What a good boy.

(Bo squeaks) I know.

Squeak, squeakers.

Squeaker, squeakers.

Easy.

That's a good man.

Are you doing that to get me wet?

Really?

Doing that to get me wet?

I'm not the one who needs a bath.

You're the one who needs a bath.

That's gonna be a big trunk full of dirt, that there is.

There we go.

Woo.

- [Sharon] Elephants throw dirt on their backs to keep insects away and keep the sun off their skin.

About the time Tarra was getting water, Bo rolled over showing complete trust, especially since there are two strangers watching.

The silver caps on his tusks were put there to protect the ivory.

He used to sleep on concrete which would wear down the ivory tips.

Carol is right about elephants being different.

Tarra gives herself a bath and likes to get her water in the mouth.

Carol, is she talking?

- Yep, she's saying I want my pumpkin.

- [Sharon] Oh.

- Where's my pumpkin?

He got one, now he got a second one.

- [Sharon] So you're gonna give her a pumpkin?

Yep, elephants like pumpkins.

So do they break it up with their trunk?

Oh no, they're gonna step on it.

Even better.

So Carol, luckily I asked you first, "Can we talk to the elephants?"

And you said, "No," explain why.

- Well, it's almost a tease because the elephants don't know you.

You're gonna be here for an hour and then you're gonna leave.

So instead of imposing yourself into their world, I prefer that you observe their world.

If you were gonna stay and be their family, whole different story, then you'd develop a relationship with them, but otherwise you just silently observe.

- And they know I'm here?

- Of course they know you're here.

They know everyone that's here.

They also know you're leaving.

- But I agree with you.

I do think Bo was showing off a bit.

- Oh of course he was.

It was very cute to watch him because when I'm out here just watering or refilling the water tank, he's just laid back and let's Tarra stand right next to him for the water.

But he got a lot of attention with the bath and he knew other people were watching.

I mean, they really pick up on the energy around them.

So he picked up on this energy of admiration and he's like, "Well, here you can admire me more.

Watch me."

Like a kid.

- [Sharon] Elephant ears act as a cooling system.

They can pump all their blood through their veins in the back of their ears every 20 minutes.

Elephant eyes are only slightly larger than humans.

They're on either side of the head, so they see at an angle and that keeps their range of vision at only about 30 feet.

- Yeah, they're incredible, aren't they?

They're amazing and put in a healthy environment where they have autonomy and they get to make their choices.

And we don't put our expectations onto them, and we don't put our human schedule and human routines onto them.

They really do blossom.

They do really well.

So my goal is to support each individual in what that one needs to feel safe, to feel appreciated, to feel that they have autonomy, and each one is different.

So to support that in that individual elephant, and work to not have me be a significant component to their world, but that they know I'm in their life.

Cause I'm not there 24/7.

- [Sharon] Yeah.

- [Carol] But other elephants are there 24/7, and you want them to develop that kinship with them.

- [Sharon] She has spared no expense to make this refuge top of the line.

The fencing alone cost thousands of dollars.

- And I didn't realize it would take so long to get elephants.

That really caused me to pause and say, "Have I misread something?"

It took us five years to get our first elephant.

And of course, first we got the dog, the dog that wasn't supposed to be here.

And it was like she opened some door.

So the dog comes and then Bo comes and then Tarra comes, and the dog gets along with both the elephants.

So it was just like, that was supposed to happen.

And apparently it was supposed to take five years because there was a lot of growth that was happening, both on the property and internally for me.

- [Sharon] You had to build a barn.

- Yeah we had to build a barn.

We had to put up 60,000 feet of fencing.

Then we had to replace the fencing when Hurricane Michael came through, and get to know the community.

And for me, it really caused me to just slow down, because I'm a zoomy person.

- [Sharon] No!

(Carol laughs) - Yeah and so it caused me to slow down and say, "Okay just accept this one day at a time."

One day, today I did this.

And like you say, I'm on the tractor.

I love my tractor.

I love my bin track.

And I do all the mowing and all the sculpting in the habitat and I love it.

And I feel like I was preparing for elephants to come, and now they're here.

- [Sharon] She did not expect her first elephant to be a male, but Bo made quite the entrance and is very gentle.

There are four more elephants she thinks will come in the not too distant future.

But Carol puts the limit at 10, all this for 10 elephants.

Like Bo and Tarra, they will be Asian elephants.

African elephants are much larger.

Carol is known internationally for the work she's done to teach elephant handlers in Asia how to care for the feet.

(people speaking foreign language) - Let me get to the back feet.

I'm sure I can comment about that.

I will say something else.

Traction is really important on the elephant's pad.

So when it's too thin like this, this is not good.

You wanna have tracking, which gives the elephant the ability to have better traction when they're walking.

If it's too slick when they're going up or down a hill, they slide and they have no way to control their movement or protect themselves from sliding.

So when I trim, I leave the tracks.

I just feather them out.

- [Sharon] She's also featured in the documentary "Unchained."

- The movie "Unchained," is really about our efforts in Asia.

So in Asia, we provide training for the mahouts, which are the elephant trainers, handlers.

And we teach them foot care for the elephants.

We teach them more humane ways of being with the elephants.

And we also create chain free corrals, because those elephants in Asia live in chains their whole lives.

- So a chain around the foot, connected to a peg or something?

- Like a chain around this wrist, a chain around this wrist, chained together... - Oh no.

- Pegged to the ground, so that they can't move around.

And that is their life when they're not doing elephant rides.

They're pegged to the ground.

- [Sharon] Here's a clip from "Unchained."

(tense music) (elephant squeaks) - That's stereotypic behavior.

It's a coping mechanism for stress.

You do not see it in wild elephants at all.

It is a captivity induced behavior.

And they'll rock back and forth, bob their head.

It's their way of coping with the insanity of the boredom.

I mean, he's on chains 24 hours a day.

I came in and I saw that situation and I said, "Easy solution."

We simply put up chain free corrals, horse fencing, electric fencing that is just a little battery pack.

It can't kill anything.

It just gives you a little zap and you go, "Oh I'm not gonna touch that."

Elephants are highly sensitive to it.

They don't even have to touch it.

They hear it, cause it goes, "Click, click, click."

And they feel the vibration and they stay away from it.

So I said, "Let's build these chain free corrals and let's see how the elephants do in it."

We started out with one corral.

It was so successful that we built a corral for all five elephants that lived there.

So it's called a hathi sar.

"Hathi" is "elephant."

"Sar" is "home."

So "Hathi sar," "Elephant home."

So we built corrals for all those five elephants.

And it was so successful that the government of Nepal approached us and said, "Please build chain free corrals for all 63 of our elephants."

- Wow.

- And we did.

It was amazing.

Truly amazing.

- [Sharon] Look what happens when an elephant is freed.

(elephant squeaks) Watching elephants that can do anything they want is eye opening.

For example, Bo loves the little dog, as you can see in the sanctuary video.

Here's an elephant playing with a dog, a scene I could never imagine.

This sanctuary was not cheap.

The fences, grading the land and even the barn.

- $500,000 for that fencing.

But if you're gonna do an elephant refuge right, then you gotta have the right space, enough space and you gotta fence it in.

- This barn took two years to build.

I thought it was to keep the elephants in at night.

No one makes them come in.

So this is the barn and it's to keep the elephants in.

You put 'em in here at night, a safe place?

- No, actually the barn is for when there is cold weather, that the elephants have access if they choose.

- Okay.

- We call it free choice access.

Doors are open.

They come and go.

There's infrared heaters that will turn on.

And so if they wanna warm themselves up, they can.

But basically we never lock anybody in against their will.

- Wow.

- That's part of the philosophy is autonomy.

Once they have autonomy, it's very much like us.

When you know you make your own choices, you know you have the right to make your own choices, but you have a good support system and team, then you end up making good choices.

And you feel good about yourself and your self-esteem is improved, and therefore your welfare is, - [Sharon] Carol taped this video as an example.

- [Carol] So we had a storm come through last night.

The temperature dropped from 77 down to about 35, 36.

And this morning, the wind was quite chilly, so the elephants decided that they did not want to go out, even though they can because the door is open.

But they chose to stay inside.

So this morning they are getting bamboo and obviously they know what to do with it.

Hey there, Tarra.

How's it going, Pumpkin?

You have a mouthful, don't you?

Hi.

How are you?

(elephant squeaks) That's a good man.

There you go.

That's a good man.

You are such a good man.

- [Sharon] Carol has worked with elephants 47 years.

She uses positive enforcement to train, which can be seen here.

She asked Bo to get down on his side, no yelling, no hitting with a stick.

She just asks him and Bo voluntarily lies down, so that a vet can insert a new microchip.

Mind you, Bo weighs 10,000 pounds and is more than 10 feet tall.

- You are still very good.

There you go, right there.

That's a good boy.

That's a good man.

Good man.

You are a gem.

You know that?

- I have never found the word or words to describe why I have such an attraction and care so much about elephants.

So I don't need the words.

I just know that it's there, and elephants are an inspiration to me.

They're so evolved and they're wise, and they're kind and they're vulnerable.

And ultimately they can be damaged in captivity.

So the better we know each individual elephant, we can make their life better.

So they're just special.

They're very special.

They're incredibly evolved, and bodies of emotion.

These elephants, and you saw in the time that you've been here, they're talkative.

They're sociable.

They interact.

They're aware of themselves.

They're aware of you.

They're aware of their environment.

They're a really interesting species.

- I'm guessing you wanna know if you can go visit the elephant sanctuary?

Well, this refuge operates under authentic sanctuary philosophy, and that means it cannot be open to the public.

However, if you go to Elephant Aid International's website, there are cameras around the property and you may well catch a glimpse of Bo or Tarra clowning around.

I hope you get to see them.

I'm Sharon Collins.

We'll see you next time.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Georgia Outdoors" has been made possible in part by the Imlay Foundation and from viewers like you.