Joyce is a 35 year old African elephant.
She lives at Six Flags Great Adventure right here in Jackson.
While she appears safe and content at her New Jersey home
few could imagine the challenges and hardship she has endured.
Her story begins here
Western Zimbabwe in Africa.
The early 1980s elephants were considered an ecological menace
with huge appetites capable of decimating massive amounts of foliage.
Because of this, elephants were targeted in a government culling operation
to protect vegetation and preserve an ecosystem.
American Fitness mogul Arthur Jones was aware of the horrific slaughter
and decided he could care for the elephants on his private ranch in Central Florida.
Jones saved 63 calves in an amazing airlift effort on his private Boeing 707 jet.
It was called Operation Jumbo.
One of those calves would later be named Joyce.
Arthur had to work with our flight crew, the animal trainers.
Sort of engineer a plan for our aircraft to be
retrofitted
to go over and pick up the animals. So there was
a lot of activity.
It might have taken six months or so.
I was pretty excited but I thought, you know, maybe we'd bring back four or five
you know, elephants on the plane.
And the next thing you know, we have 63
baby elephants, you know, taking up every inch of the aircraft.
The elephants arrived at Jones's preserve outside Ocala Florida.
They were free to roam the grounds nicknamed Jumbolair.
They adapted well to the new paradise of lush grasses and towering oak trees.
Jones's plan was to keep them forever.
So after a few years of taking care of this massive herd of elephants on his Florida home
Arthur Jones just couldn't do it anymore. You know the financial challenge became just too great.
and so he started dispersing the herd.
For the next two decades Joyce would be passed between owners around the United States.
It's hard to know how this would have affected her mentally
But we do know that elephants are very social creatures and they're really dependent on the companionships
and relationships that they form within their herds.
Joyce's first stop was into the circus.
She now had to travel around the country
in cramped trailers and performing tricks that she learned from various human trainers.
Finally after more than two decades of Joyce being moved around the country
and facing all this upheaval and turmoil
she landed at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson,
New Jersey.
And she's been there ever since.
We were asked by our sister park in California if we could accommodate another elephant
And I said, talked to my staff, then we met, and we said "Sure."
So, we accepted her.
After decades of relocations and reports of mistreatment
Joyce has found a new home among six other African elephants.
At Great Adventure she spends much of her time in this exercise pen.
She gets plenty of attention and treats, including her favorite ...
slices of white bread.
She still has some room to grow when it comes to the other elephants she lives with but
this is probably as calm of a situation that she's had
for a long time and
nothing seems to indicate that that's going to change in the foreseeable future.
Life for Joyce in New Jersey is still far better to the almost certain death she would have faced
if Arthur Jones hadn't conjured his rescue plan four decades ago.
Joyce still could have many years ahead as elephants are known to live 70 years in captivity.
Could this be Joyce's final stop?
Is this an end to the turmoil upheaval and change she has endured?
I expect her to be here
for as long as she's on this earth.
I mean that's my goal. I have no plan on moving here anywhere.
I think she's very content being with us.
I think she, and we're only gonna make things better.
That's our goal.