How A Wild-Born Elephant Ended Up At Neverland And, Later, A FL Zoo’​s ‘Dentist’s Chair‘

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The African elephant Ali started life in 1990 or 1991 as a young bull exploring the vast possibilities within the sprawling borders of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves on the continent, and one rich with hundreds of species.

Fast-forward to 2023, and the 11,000-pound pachyderm who once belonged to pop star Michael Jackson was in the “dentist’s chair” at Florida’s Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens undergoing a root canal surgery.

The surgery, which required coordination by a team of 60 veterinarians, anesthesiologists and caregivers, was necessary to relieve the elephant’s pain and prevent the spread of infection and more serious complications, the zoo said in a statement Tuesday.

Ali is expected to fully recover from the four-and-a-half-hour surgery, a complicated procedure given the pachyderm’s girth and the need to keep him anesthetized and quiet for the duration, the zoo said. About half of the 60-member care team kept a close eye on Ali’s vital signs throughout the procedure, watching for any complications from the anesthesia. At the end, the zoo used a crane to lift the giant elephant back to his feet.

A pair of renowned veterinarians flew in from South Africa to assist the local team. Veterinarians, vet techs and elephant caregivers from six different U.S. facilities, joined as well.

The outpouring of support for Ali illustrates the extraordinary esteem in which elephants are held worldwide. Growing understanding that these physically imposing and highly intelligent animals experience many of the same emotions as people — for example, joy, anger, grief, compassion and love — has challenged our treatment of elephants.

After population declines over several decades due to habitat loss, but also because of poachers who kill long tusked elephants for their ivory, the African forest elephant was downgraded from vulnerable to critically endangered, and the African savanna elephant was downgraded to from vulnerable to endangered on the latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Baby elephants are also captured for the pet trade. Growing outrage over the trauma they experience led to an international treaty in 2019 that prohibits the export of elephants from Africa, though conservationists worried at the time an opaque elephant trade would emerge.

The treaty didn’t come in time for Ali. His story is emblematic of the problem with keeping exotic animals as pets. They can become too large to manage and unpredictable to the point they are dangerous, and are invariably surrendered — not always to reputable places like the Jacksonville Zoo.

‘An Instrument Of Torture’

Ali was culled in a herd management practice at Kruger National Park in the early and sold to the pet trade, eventually living among about 50 other exotic and endangered species at Jackson’s Santa Barbara County, California, Neverland Ranch.

There, his life was far less wonderful than portrayed in the fantasy the pop singer presented to the world, according to “Searching for Michael Jackson's Zoo with Ross Kemp,” a documentary from Great Britain’s ITV Studios.

Jackson bought Ali and Baba, a young female who also survived the cull, from a “convicted drug dealer and animal torturer,” documentary producer Johnny McDevitt told The Telegraph.

“They had witnessed their herd being culled,” McDevitt said of the young elephants, adding, “the guy had used a bull hook — an instrument of torture — deprived them of water and food, and beaten them into submission so they could be sent across the world to Jackson’s ranch.”

The documentary also includes undercover video suggesting the use of bull hooks, or ankus, continued at Neverland. These batons with a sharp hook on the end have since been banned in California, and a phase-out of their use in zoos should be complete this year. At the time, a former Neverland caretaker said in the documentary, it was an accepted practice.

Jackson had plans to breed elephants, but when construction on the space to do so was delayed in 1997, he donated Ali to the Jacksonville Zoo, according to a Chicago Tribune account at the time.

As for Baba, she’s among the trained animals rented out for the film industry by Serengeti Ranch in Acton, California, north of Los Angeles. She has been living there since 2006 with another elephant, Susie, formerly owned by Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California.

What Happened To The Menagerie?

Jackson also collected other exotic and endangered species — chimpanzees, giraffes, big cats and multiple species of birds among them — for his menagerie. Many have been relocated to more honorable homes, including zoos and sanctuaries.

For example, the chimpanzee Bubbles, who once accompanied Jackson on a tour in Japan, lives about 230 miles away at the Center for Great Apes sanctuary. Jackson’s estate generously supports Bubbles’ care. It’s a good home. The Wauchula, Florida, sanctuary is regarded as a model for others caring for great apes rescued from research laboratories, pet owners and the entertainment industry. In 2019, it was selected as the home for the orangutan Sandra from Argentina, the first great ape ever to receive non-human personhood.

A couple of tigers, Thriller and Sabu, also found good places to live out their lives at the Shambala Preserve, a sanctuary for exotic cats north of Los Angeles

Other animals were less fortunate. Several pet alligators once owned by Jackson were killed in a fire on the Joe Exotic “Tiger King” set. Two giraffes died weeks apart at a sanctuary in Arizona. A couple of orangutans went to Connecticut to live with a private owner, according to a 2011 report from PETA.

Expanding The Gene Pool

Ali landed in a safe place — though as more is learned about elephants’ complex physical, social, emotional and psychological needs, debate swirls around the ethics of keeping them in captivity. Equally complicated are attempts at returning captive elephants to the wild. “Rewilding” is fraught with questions of whether it’s in the best interest of the elephants, given their smaller social networks and the lack of freedom to roam in their captive environments.

The Jacksonville Zoo has been an AZA-acredited facility since 1987. Its status is reviewed every five years to ensure the zoo is meeting or exceeding a wide range of standards, including animal care and welfare and veterinary care. Standards are updated annually.

It’s no traveling roadside zoo, where Ali might have been consigned to a life of traveling from one town to the next to give children rides and perform on cue. Jacksonville Zoo visitors pay to see Ali, who lives the typical life of a zoo elephant with females Thandi and Sheena. None of the zoo’s three elephants are expected to perform.

Thandi and Sheena were also born in the wild, making them good candidates for the breeding program overseen by the Species Survival Plan. The goal is to maintain as genetically diverse and self-sustaining a population of elephants as possible, using as a guide the SSP studbook, a database with the genetic history of 1,402 captive- and wild-born elephants.

Both male and female and both African and Asian are included in the database. Among the 37 African bull elephants in the database, Ali is one of 13 who was born in the wild.

Nothing suggests Ali has anything less than a good zoo life.

He underwent a similar surgery for an infected tusk in 2019 after years of treatment. His history “is a reminder of the tremendous effort we make for animals in our care,” Corey Neatrour, the assistant curator for mammals at the Jacksonville Zoo, said in a news release.

“It took a team of dedicated people to coordinate this type of challenging medical procedure and we are very pleased with the outcome,” he said.

Editor’s note: The Jacksonville Zoo did not return Patch’s repeated requests for an interview.