San Francisco Frontiers - Ivan Deforge, the French 'bison tamer' in Moscow

The 56-year-old Frenchman has taken on the unusual challenge of training European bison to perform things they would not naturally do in the wild.

Circuses using wild animals have fallen out of favour across much of Europe due to concerns over animal cruelty, and France plans to ban them outright from December 2028.

But in Russia, more than 1,000 animals are currently made to perform in circuses across the country, nearly all of them state-run, official statistics show.

"There are two types of bison," Deforges told AFP after a training session with the animals, both two-year-olds with brownish-red coats.

The more docile American bison are sometimes seen in US circuses for human entertainment, he explained.

But European bison have "a much more difficult and slightly more aggressive temperament".

Deforge, who has been training circus animals for three decades, moved to Russia eight years ago.

"At the moment, I am the only one here -- even the only one left in Europe working with European bison," he said.

He has used giraffes, hippos, rhinos, camels and zebras, and now has both bisons and elephants at the Great Moscow Circus, which opened during the Soviet era.

- 'Short words' -

A bill proposing to ban the use of animals in Russian circuses was put to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, this year.

MPs flatly rejected it.

"The issue of humane treatment of animals is sufficiently regulated by law," they determined, noting the economic interests of animal circuses, which remain a major draw for audiences.

Deforge says he treats his charges humanely.

"You have to love animals. You have to respect them," he insisted.

"When you have their trust, animals can do a lot of things."

In Moscow, Deforge is preparing to take on one of the biggest challenges of his career by training Karym and Ural, who have been with the circus since August last year.

First displayed to the public during an "open rehearsal" four months after their arrival, the bison have so far only appeared in summer shows held in a small tent in a Moscow park.

Their appearance in the main arena under the big dome, scheduled for December, requires careful preparation, Deforge said.

The trick was to use "short words".

"If you say: 'Come here, please', that would be too long and too difficult to understand," he said.

- Short words -

"And the Russian language has plenty of short words that I love using in training," he said, listing "Stoyat!" (Stand!), "Lezhat!" (Lie down!) and "Idi!" (Go!).

"That is much easier for the animals to understand," said Deforge, who tells his bison "Molodets!" (Well done!) after every successful exercise.

He puts Karym and Ural through their routine three to four times a week, with each session lasting an hour.

"The most important thing is that the animals are comfortable," he said, "and well-fed" with plenty of apples and carrots.

Deforge arrived in Russia in 2018 while touring with an Italian circus troupe.

He subsequently accepted an offer from Great Moscow Circus director Edgard Zapashny to join the team as an elephant trainer.

Working alongside Zapashny -- a big-cat trainer and fourth-generation member of the Zapashny circus dynasty -- Deforge is also planning to present a brand-new show featuring seven elephants to the public "soon".

Six of the pachyderms were gifted to the circus by Russian ally Myanmar in 2025 to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

K.Gray--SFF