Elephants perform for final time at Ringling Bros.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus bade farewell to its performing elephants Sunday, as the show closed its own chapter on a practice that has entertained audiences in America for two centuries but has come under fire by animal rights activists.

“Tonight is a very special night. Tonight, we are all witnessing history, as the nation’s largest living legends take to the arena floor for their final bow,” Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson told the crowd.

The crowd cheered as six Asian elephants entered the arena to perform in an act that had them dancing, balancing on each others’ backs, sitting on their hind legs and pretending to sleep.

“We came to say farewell to the elephants,” said Sheila Oliver, of East Providence, Rhode Island, who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Lilliana. “This is her first circus and, unfortunately, it’s their last one.”

Five elephants also performed earlier Sunday in a Ringling Bros. show in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

The Providence show opened with the national anthem. An elephant carried a performer holding an American flag then stood at attention as the song ended. A few minutes later, six elephants entered the ring, each holding the tail of the one in front of her.

After Sunday’s performance, the animals will live at Ringling’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, said Alana Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment, which owns the circus. Its herd of 40 Asian elephants, the largest in North America, will continue a breeding program and be used in a pediatric cancer research project.