Elephant Sanctuaries

Portugal's Alentejo Region is About to Become Europe's Latest and Largest

For centuries and millennia, the story of the elephant in Europe has ranged from military novelty to utility and tragedy. There was the straight-tusked elephants replete throughout its ancient woodlands and forests, and the dwarf elephants of Crete and Sicily. There was Hannibal who marched elephants across the Alps for war in the third century BCE. Later, elephants became part of the elite culture as trophies. Finally, starting in the 19th century the elephant became commonly associated, for better or worse, with zoos.

This story was heading towards a tragic coda, as a 2008 study shockingly found that the median lifespan for African elephants in European zoos was three times less than their counterparts roaming in national parks like Kenya’s Tsavo—home to the amazing red elephants, whose terracotta hue comes from intentional dusting in nearby iron-rich red soil.

Do not adjust your monitor, these elephants are actually red!

But inadequate space and restricted lives have brought about change and opportunity. Change and opportunity in the form of an elephant sanctuary about to be opened in Portugal’s Alentejo region.

We explore the glory and theory of Pangea after the paywall.