ABSTRACT
The carnivores, except the dogs, were housed in beast wagons and now have exercise yards when encamped. The space allowance varied from 0.17-4.5 cubic metres for an adult lion in the beast wagon. The beast wagons rarely had any cage furniture although shelves are being introduced in some. The ungulates were housed in stalls, looseboxes or loose yards in tents. Some were tethered outside and some could run free some of the time. The elephants were shackled habitually in tents, although during my study electric-fenced yards were introduced and some elephants spent the majority of the day in them. Half of the elephants were allowed to move around freely with their handler for approximately one hour per day. Because a circus might have only one of a species, some animals were isolated from conspecifics. However, the nature of a moving circus is such that it was not possible for animals or people to be completely isolated. In the zoos and static circuses and winter quarters this was not always the case. The animals were transported in either their living quarters or horse boxes and converted lorries. No evidence of distress or
trauma as a result of transportation was seen as the animals became very used to this. The animals were adequately fed and they had on the whole good veterinary supervision from the circus and zoo veterinarians. The majority of the animals were in good condition: 90% on tour. However, at the winter quarters, 70% of animals are considered not to be in peak condition. During the past two years 5.4% of the animals had reported sickness. There was a 0.97% mortality reported to me. These figures are low when compared to farms, zoos and stables. Drugs and surgery were not used to maintain the system.
