Carol Buckley

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Carol Buckley, born May 18, 1954 in Oakland, California, is an American elephant caregiver who specializes in trauma recovery and ongoing care for captive elephants. She studied Exotic Animal Training & Management at Moorpark College in 1974.

Her work with Tarra began when she was a student and noticed a baby elephant named Fluffy. Buckley volunteered to care for Fluffy, borrowed $25,000 a year later, bought Fluffy (renamed Tarra), and started Tarra Productions. For about 15 years, she lived with, cared for, trained, transported, and performed with Tarra in circuses and zoos across the U.S. and Canada. In 1984 she began to question whether Tarra’s confinement met her psychological needs and searched for a better life for Tarra in other facilities, ultimately seeking a more natural setting.

In November 1994, with a bank loan, Buckley bought 112 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee, built a barn for Tarra, and co-founded The Elephant Sanctuary (Hohenwald) in Tennessee—the first natural-habitat refuge for sick, old, and needy elephants. The sanctuary now covers about 2,700 acres with three sections, four barns, and 20 miles of fencing to provide a more natural environment for elephants.

After disagreements with her co-founders, Buckley left the sanctuary, kept Tarra, and in 2010 founded Elephant Aid International (EAI). Through EAI she spends months each year consulting in Nepal, India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka to improve elephant foot care, implement Compassionate Elephant Management (CEM) with mahouts, and create solar-powered chain-free corrals to free working elephants from chains.

In 2016 Buckley helped establish Elephant Refuge North America (ERNA) in Attapulgus, Georgia, near Tallahassee, Florida. ERNA sits on about 850 acres of suitable habitat with pastures, forests, and lakes, and a climate of roughly 50 inches of rainfall annually, mild winters, and hot, humid summers. The project will feature live webcams to observe natural elephant behavior in real time and an international internship/education center. Buckley has continued her global work, including a 2016 trip to Japan to review the care of Hanako, an elderly elephant kept in isolation for decades.