Julie the elephant raised her trunk and breathed in the fresh air of her new home, finally free after four decades of performing under big tops. On June 30, Julie arrived at the Pangea Elephant Sanctuary in Alentejo, Portugal, ending her 40-year career as the last circus elephant in the entire country. She was the first resident to move onto the sanctuary grounds, and staff say she made herself at home right away, wandering over to explore the watering hole. The 1,000-acre refuge is the first sanctuary of its kind in all of Europe, built specifically to give retired working elephants a place to roam. Julie spent most of her life in traveling circuses. Captured as a calf in Africa during the late 1980s, she was brought to Portugal and began performing in 1988. For 40 years, she learned tricks and entertained crowds under the lights of the Víctor Hugo Cardinali circus, traveling from city to city in small enclosures. In 2018, Portugal passed a law banning wild animal performances in circuses by 2024. The law was good news for animal welfare, but it left Julie with nowhere to go. That is when the Pangea sanctuary stepped in. Staff spent 18 months planning Julie's move, coordinating with her former owner and preparing the grounds. On moving day, Julie climbed into a truck and rode for three hours from the circus grounds to her new forever home. The journey was emotional for the team watching her settle in. "There couldn't be a more fitting first resident than Portugal's last circus elephant," said Kate Moore, the sanctuary's managing director. "Our focus is now to give Julie the best possible quality of life in her time ahead." The sanctuary hopes to eventually house up to 35 elephants, but staff are taking it slow, building more barns and fences as they go. One small gesture showed just how much people already care about Julie's new life: an English primary school adopted her before she even arrived, raising £100 to support her care. Looking ahead, Julie will not be alone for long. The sanctuary is preparing to welcome Kariba, another female African elephant who was also captured in the wild and is now in her 40s. Kariba currently lives alone at a zoo in Belgium and will make the journey to Portugal later this year. For Julie, though, the hardest part is already behind her. After a lifetime of performances, she finally gets to just be an elephant.