Joyce’s life on unsteady ground
Report
New research reveals the constant ground vibrations surrounding Joyce at Six Flags Wild Safari – and why she urgently needs sanctuary.
For years, Joyce the elephant has lived in a place no elephant should be: an enclosure pressed between rollercoasters, truck routes and heavy machinery at Six Flags Wild Safari in New Jersey.
While captivity itself leads to extreme suffering, what you don't see is the invisible stress she faces every day - the constant vibrations of the ground beneath her feet.
To better understand what Joyce experiences on a daily basis, World Animal Protection teamed up with Terrapin Sensing and the University of Maryland Department of Geology. For 30 days in summer 2025, scientists used seismometers around the park to measure the intensity and sources of ground shaking around Joyce’s enclosure.
The data was startling. This is what they found:
- Rollercoasters: 5–20 Hz vibrations – the same range elephants naturally use to communicate.
- Safari trucks: 20–200 Hz bursts, all day long.
- A nearby water treatment plant: a constant 7–10 Hz mechanical hum.
That’s like living through a small but constant earthquake. Joyce isn’t just sensing these vibrations – she's living in a world where the ground is persistently shaking beneath her feet.
Why this matters
We don’t yet know exactly how elephants process artificial ground vibrations, but we do know this: they’re incredibly sensitive to low-frequency vibrations and rely on them for comfort, communication and safety. For Joyce, being exposed to these daily artificial vibrations likely disrupts her natural sensory world, compounding the stress of captivity.
In the wild, elephants avoid disruptive vibrations. Joyce can’t. As Dr. Jan Schmidt-Burback puts it: “Elephants in the wild may choose to avoid such vibrations, but in captivity they have no such choice. This adds to the long list of concerns for why a theme park in a cold climate environment, with truck-based observation on roads and rollercoasters nearby is clearly not the right environment for elephants such as Joyce.”
Six Flags is a theme park – not a home for an elephant.
What Joyce needs now
This research adds powerful scientific evidence to what we’ve said for years: Joyce deserve better. She deserves solid ground, peace and sanctuary.
And we’re working to make that happen. We will continue to work with experts and advocates to ensure her suffering is not ignored.
You can help by signing our petition to demand Six Flags close its elephant exhibit and send Joyce and the other elephants to sanctuary.
Banner image: World Animal Protection / Miguel Endara
Donate today to protect Joyce & other wild animals
Together we continue to pressure Six Flags to release her from a life of suffering and move her to a sanctuary where she can finally heal.