Rich Nutrients as High as an Elephant’s Eye : Circus Doesn’t Want to Waste Elephant Dung

It is commonly found in Asia and Africa, but has done wonders for the U.S. National Arboretum. And although it costs at least $4 a can in Oregon, Los Angeles pays to have it hauled away.

Elephant manure, produced in prodigious quantities but rarely available locally, is in plentiful supply this week in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys.

It is being given away for free by Circus Vargas, whose 10 elephants produce more than a half a ton daily. The circus has always offered some of the nutrient-rich manure to knowledgeable gardeners, but for the first time in its 21-year history is making a concerted effort to save a ton in disposal costs by giving it all away.

Patricia and Loraine DeRosier of Acton were among those who brought pitchforks and strong stomachs to the tent where the brown elephants were tethered this week in the parking lot of the Saugus Speedway. The DeRosiers were so eager to fertilize their 30-acre vegetable farm with the potent stuff that they planned to take home as many truckloads as they could during the circus’s three-day stint at the racetrack, which ends today.

“What smell? I don’t smell anything,” said Loraine DeRosier, 39, as she stood ankle-deep in the pungent manure, pitchfork in hand.

“It’s got a clean odor,” added her mother, Patricia, 66, who appeared to relish the loading process.

The circus estimates that it will save $200 to $600 a week during its tour of Southern California this spring if gardeners respond to classified newspaper ads offering “pachyderm poop.” The circus will visit Canoga Park beginning this weekend before moving on to Redondo Beach.

“This is valuable stuff--why should it take up space in our landfills when it is such a rich source of nutrients,” said John Lehnhardt, a manager for the National Zoo in Washington.

For years, the National Zoo’s four Asian and African elephants have supplied the U.S. National Arboretum with enough manure to enrich 444 acres of azaleas, rare plants and herbs, Lehnhardt said.

Because elephants only digest about 40% of their vegetarian diet, their manure is especially rich in nutrients, Lehnhardt said. An adult elephant excretes up to 200 pounds of the stuff daily, he said.

But the manure needs to be composted for about six months before being used as a fertilizer or undigested seeds will sprout in the garden, Lehnhardt said. During composting, heat kills the seeds.

The International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Ore., which gets free elephant manure from the Metro Washington Park Zoo, once failed to compost the manure long enough and found peanut plants growing among some of its 10,000 rose bushes, said Daryl Johnson, the garden’s curator. But properly composted elephant manure from the zoo has helped enrich the garden’s eight-inch-wide blossoms, some of the largest in the world, he said.

The Portland zoo also sells elephant manure, dubbed “Zoo Doo” in gold-and-green wrapped 15-ounce cans for $4 apiece, said spokeswoman Anne Brown.

But the Los Angeles Zoo pays a garbage hauler to take the manure produced by its eight elephants to the dump, said Mike Dee, the zoo’s curator of mammals. Dee could not estimate the disposal costs.

“We thought about giving it away, but it is considered city property,” Dee said. “You can’t give away anything belonging to the city, even firewood from a dead tree.”

But Circus Vargas is not bound by such considerations. “We’ve got plenty to give away,” spokeswoman Joan Hart said.

“And it’s produced fresh every day.”