The days of lumbering elephants performing under big-top tents are coming to an end sooner than planned.

Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, said in a statement on Monday that it was phasing out its Asian elephants and moving the creatures from their traveling circuses to a conservation center in Florida in May, a year and a half sooner than anticipated.

The move would bring to 40 the number of elephants at the center, the company said. The cost of caring for the 11 touring elephants is about $65,000 a year, and Feld Entertainment said it wants to use that money to focus on conservation and pediatric cancer research instead.

This is a switch from last March, when the company had said it would phase out its touring elephant units, which perform 1,000 shows a year, by 2018.