"I live with an Elephant and an Elephant lives with me."

The Story of "The Elephant Man"

Salvation and friendship come in many different forms, but few as strange and beautiful as that of Timbo the African bull elephant and Chris Gallucci, the Elephant Man. Their friendship spawns a lifetime’s vocation which endured for almost 30 years.

Show no weakness, stay cool, no matter what happens--this was the maxim that shaped Chris' life. Chris left his parents' house when he was 12.  At age 16 he paid his first visit to an adult jail and spent the next few years between jail sentences. Riding around the United States, growing up "way too fast," raising hell - getting shot, stabbed, beaten-up and left for dead - he lived through it all. It seemed unlikely anything would change until the fateful day in 1975 when he took a job as a welder on the set of Roar, a movie featuring Hollywood star Tippi Hedren and her daughter Melanie Griffith, as well as numerous lions, cougars, tigers, leopards . . . and two elephants.

Chris was immediately fascinated by Timbo, the gigantic bull elephant, and when the film's elephant trainer quit, he immediately applied for the job.  "Someone told me that the elephant was the largest animal that walked the earth," Chris says.  "I knew  I had to have a piece of that."   To win the pachyderm’s trust that first night, Chris chained himself up beside Timbo in his enclosure and threw away the key. That was the start of the 30 year long relationship; one which tamed the savage in Chris.

"My life before here was craziness," Chris recalls, "and even if you're afraid, you can't show it.  And so then, here [at Shambala], that fits like a glove.  My background probably helped me in the position that I'm in now.  I'm ready for anything."

Once the film was finished everyone moved on – apart from Tippi and Chris. She stayed for the Ranch, setting up the “Roar Foundation” to run the “Shambala Preserve” as a home for all the stars of Roar and later for other rescued animals. Chris stayed for Timbo, the first and – quite literally - heaviest responsibility he had ever taken in his life.

Chris and Timbo's story began to be told, in the Animal Planet cable network's documentary on Shambala, Life With Big Cats.  Guests who visited the Preserve saw how he interacted with Timbo and Kura.  Eventually, he and Timbo were the subject of their own documentary, The Elephant Man (aka Tusks and Tattoos), which has been shown worldwide.

Chris has also been a model, posing for, among other things, an edition of the Bible.  He is portrayed here as various deckhands manning the ship in the Book of Jonah, and as the injured traveler tended to by the Good Samaritan.

Although Chris can barely write, he kept a detailed journal during the three decades on his exceptional life as an elephant trainer.

In powerful, stimulating photos, the photographer Nomi Baumgartl captures the essence of elephant man Chris Gallucci’s life: the small world of the ranch, walks with Timbo on the edge of the Mojave Desert, Chris’ daily training regime with the huge bull – and his passion for polished knives, for gleaming Harleys and, time and time again, for the giant Timbo. Alongside these photos, extracts from Chris’ diary provide a window to his soul. They betray his quiet doubts, his concerns for Timbo – large and small – and reflect the joy, fulfillment and happiness that Chris finds with the elephant. This exceptional illustrated book inspires with a silent power which captures, in words and pictures, the intensive relationship and spiritual connection between animal and man – between Timbo and Chris.

Chris Gallucci, author, biker and elephant trainer, lives in Acton, California.  Since Timbo’s death in 2005, Chris has continued to work as Preserve Supervisor at the Shambala Preserve.