Val Deleon, Oakland Zoo Elephant Specialist & Consultant – 42 Years

February 14, 1922 -April 11, 2021

Seen (right) during an exhibition of exercise with Kimi (Elephas Maximus Borneensis) at antique elephant set in Oakland Zoo.

In the early 90’s my grandfather’s elephant habitat: Mali Ya ya Tiembo elephant set opened up, at last. This “habitat” was reknown for it’s natural design and many more habitats followed right up to this day. He always told me about his ideas for more natural settings in the habitat sets, and it looks as if he was right on time with that…..Most Respect.

First Elephant Trainer in North America To Single Stud 4 African Females at the same time, bred the first African Elephant Born in North America. From the Oakland Zoo Val performed the only African elephant show of it’s kind in north America. The role of animals in our world started with entertainment, and it is through this entertainment, that people all over the world have come to know & love elephants, and become aware of their plight in the wild and their conservation. Now is the time for conservation to hybrid with interaction. Interaction with elephants allows the extent of their intelligence to be appreciated, and their importance in the world to be recognized. Imagine a person that is able, observe AND interact. The knowledge accrued through observation is paramount to two way communication with these key species as to learn: What are they saying? There is no substitute for trust, contact & interaction, as this is how elephants live amongst themselves, trust, contact & interaction. I believe elephants may even be sentient enough to consciously help in their own conservation and protection to avoid extinction, but we’ll never know until we start a conversation. Does learning “Elephant” count as a foreign language credit?…..

Tame Elephant, care & study, elephants in film

Robert “Smokey” Jones Professional Elephant Trainer – Circus

Jan. 2, 1927 – June 21, 2002

Link to Circus and Side Shows: https://www.circusesandsideshows.com/performers/smokeyjones.html

(Above Left) One of my grandfather’s very best friends, Mr. Smokey Jones with the Circus So much so, he named “Smokey” the Oakland zoo elephant after Mr. Smokey Jones.

(Above Middle) Smokey Jones Asian Elephant herd. (Epic Respect). (Above Right) So. Cal, Val & Mr. Smokey with Smokey the Elephant of the Oakland Zoo.

William “Buckles” Woodcock Jr

February 26, 1935 – March 02, 2023

(Above) Another Circus Giant: Buckles Woodcock. Another One of my grandfather’s good friends. Every time the circus came to town, we always went backstage! So exciting! Absolutely Brilliant man. – Epic Respect.

Link to Buckles Blog: https://bucklesw.blogspot.com/2023/03

Link to Circus and Sideshows: https://www.m.circusesandsideshows.com/performers/buckles-woodcock.html

If not for these pioneers, how would the rest of the world become so familiar with elephants, or any animal for that matter & ever had the opportunity to meet & love elephants? As of this minute in fact, so many of the world’s species are falling into the disappearing death, while most people are ignorant to the fact. Why?, maybe there’s not enough wildlife exposure to interest human attention in comparison their own survival? As we all know, it’s a good thing we have some here in the americas, because the slaughter in their own world is horrific. If it was not for these pioneers, as well as those who keep it going, & keep the interest, our elephant friends would have been slaughtered down in silence. While these elephants were in the circus getting cared for, their wild counterparts were being annihilated by poachers for ivory to fund civil wars. African poaching still happening. In this present day elephants in Borneo face the same poacher threat, only this time none are safe. Males are killed for tusks, females and calves are killed for skin and meat, palm tree plantations have destroyed all but one natural waterway for them, interrupted their food supply & elephant corridors, not to mention the gunshots, snare traps they suffer frequently. The environmental stressors eventually affect the elephants health, if they’re not slaughtered first.

Gunther Gebel-Williams

September 12, 1934 – July 19, 2001

Link to:https://www.circopedia.org/Gunther_Gebel-Williams

The Next Generation….

The Preserve

https://www.visitthepreserve.com

Graceful Retirement – Tennessee Reserve

Human “Allmothers” in the Wild

Andrea Turkalo of Cornell University, dedicated almost 30 years of her life in Dzanga bai studying the Rainforest elephants of central Africa. Advancing rebels forced her to evacuate her camp, she returned after a year…

Elephant Conservation Science in Africa

Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell

I remember her conducting studies at the Oakland Zoo in the early 90’s. My grandfather showed me some of the equipment they were using, with Donna, was actually going to be named after me (my grandmother said no because it was showing favoritism, so they went with Donna), as I was going to take his place someday, but life is fickle. Unfortunately the study did not go as planned because my grandfather had just retired and he let the “new” person run the show. Grandpa knew what they should have done, but he just stood back, the new keeper did not want his help. Too bad, I would love to create the same study, because with bare feet around elephants, you can feel their voice in the earth, it helps if you plug your ears…PS. Donna didn’t need treats, she needed an example. Anyway, another brilliant woman.

Elephant Voices

https://www.elephantvoices.org/about-elephantvoices/elephantvoices-priorities-2025.html

Mentors of the “Elephant frontier”, as well as visionaries of the future to sustainably blend wild animals with domestication, to further research while caring for our living seed banks. Some populations are so critically red listed, a major disaster could extinct them permanently. At least with domesticated animals there is a living, viable, thriving, record to responsibly guard and disperse back to the wild to help bolster gene pools as well. the centuries of Poaching and crowding the elephants has also resulted in a serious tusk defect in Asians and Africans. Also healthcare is easy with tame domesticated animals, so more desirable results are achieved. It is also because of the early growing pains, that we now know more about the physical & mental needs (eg: space, food, attention, exercise, enrichement) of elephants to ensure a safe, positive & educational experience with our “Living Protected Records”. Ideally in this case, having a varied amount of heterozygous DNA available to back breed into the wild with. Also fact, elephants love attention and interaction, boredom spells disaster.

Just the beginning…

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