Sabu
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) at
Carson & Barnes Circus in United States

Biography

☨ ♀ Sabu

Identification


Description
Species:	Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
Sex and age:	Female ♀
Origin
Born:	* wild
Birth place:
Death
Dead:	†1965
Death location:	Carson & Barnes Circus
Death reason:	unknown:
Locations - owners
Present / last location:	Carson & Barnes Circus, in United States

Date of arrival

1964-00-00	Carson & Barnes Circus from Hoxie Brothers Circus

1962-00-00	Hoxie Brothers Circus from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1960-00-00	Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus International (South America Tour)

1960-00-00	Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus International (South America Tour) from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1947-06-20	Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Zoo Circus

1944-00-00	Zoo Circus 1944-00-00 from Circus Carl Hagenbeck-Stellingen

Record history
History of updates	2025-04-06

Latest document update	2022-10-10 17:39:39

† Sabu is a dead Female ♀ Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), , who died 1965 at Carson & Barnes Circus, in United States, .

Origin

Sabu was born wild .

Comments / pictures

During world war II she was send, together with other elephants, with the circus to Malmoe in Sweden, in order to be protected from the war. But all elephants became confiscated by the swedish government, and sold to Ringling Bros Circus.

Records about Sabu from William "Buckles" Woodcocks Blog at http://www.bucklesw.blogspot.com/
Minyak and Sabu came from the Hagenbeck Zoo where they appeared in a five act "Kernaudi", "Minyak", "Mudu", "Sabu" and "Icky" where they were presented by Hugo Schmitt.
Hugo once told me that as the Allied bombing intensified in Germany he often spent the night with them under a concrete overpass nearby waiting for the all clear signal.
Hugo and the elephants were soon shipped out of the country into neutral Sweden with hopes they would be returned after the war but such was not the case, they were confiscated by the Swedish Government and eventually sold to the Ringling Show in 1947.
In 1961 the Ringling Show sent a unit to South America and "Minyak" and "Sabu" were included but on their return were both sold to Hoxie-Bartok Circus in 1962 (I might add that Hugo never owned these elephants) and thenUnited Nations Circus in 1963. (Same show?)
They were sold to D.R. Miller in 1964 and "Minyak" died shortly after arriving in Oklahoma and "Sabu" died a year later after being leased to Carson & Barnes Circus (owned by Jack Moore) for that season.

William "Buckles" Woodcock

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2026). Sabu, Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) located at Carson & Barnes Circus in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 21 January 2026 at https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1992. (archived at the Wayback machine)