From Wade Burck's "Circus No-Spin Zone:"
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Jungleland--Available for Purchase
1961 Sheba and Bamboo II standing, unknown elephant laying down.
Posted by Wade G. Burck
Radar said...
Is this the Bamboo owned by Morgan Berry before she was sold to Seattle in 1968? The studbook states she was born in 1966, so this would be unlikely. What is this animal's story?
Is this the Sheba owned by Wallace Brothers in 1961, later a Cristiani elephant before arriving at the Buffalo Zoo in 1984?
Wade said...
Radar,
A Brookfield Zoo staff member mentioned a week or so ago, that their record keeping was shoddy. On it's best day, in the past, a circus's record keeping would have been appreciated if it had been at least shoddy, as I am sure you have found out by now. A treat would have been somebody recording it on a napkin in the cook house. As it's stand's most of it is word of mouth ...
Bamboo I, Bamboo II, Bamboo III, Little Bamboo, Bamboo Jr. etc. etc., unless it's name was changed to Sparkle on the Hoot Bros. show for a year, before becoming Big Mable on the Toot Bros. show. That's how you develop the "elephant record book twitch." Your guess is as good as anybody's. LOL I don't know if you recall Mary Ann chastising me a couple of years ago on the blog, for being cold and heartless when I suggested the captive animal world had missed the boat by not assigning just a number to all animals from the time of capture birth, and only having a insignificant "barn name" for handling by keepers and trainers. Trainers could change it's name a dozen times over it's life, but it would still be #56932, with a name of no consequence,regardless of it's spelling or accented pronunciation, as is done now for the most part.
Wade
Jungleland--Available for Purchase
1961 Sheba and Bamboo II standing, unknown elephant laying down.
Posted by Wade G. Burck
Radar said...
Is this the Bamboo owned by Morgan Berry before she was sold to Seattle in 1968? The studbook states she was born in 1966, so this would be unlikely. What is this animal's story?
Is this the Sheba owned by Wallace Brothers in 1961, later a Cristiani elephant before arriving at the Buffalo Zoo in 1984?
Wade said...
Radar,
A Brookfield Zoo staff member mentioned a week or so ago, that their record keeping was shoddy. On it's best day, in the past, a circus's record keeping would have been appreciated if it had been at least shoddy, as I am sure you have found out by now. A treat would have been somebody recording it on a napkin in the cook house. As it's stand's most of it is word of mouth ...
Bamboo I, Bamboo II, Bamboo III, Little Bamboo, Bamboo Jr. etc. etc., unless it's name was changed to Sparkle on the Hoot Bros. show for a year, before becoming Big Mable on the Toot Bros. show. That's how you develop the "elephant record book twitch." Your guess is as good as anybody's. LOL I don't know if you recall Mary Ann chastising me a couple of years ago on the blog, for being cold and heartless when I suggested the captive animal world had missed the boat by not assigning just a number to all animals from the time of capture birth, and only having a insignificant "barn name" for handling by keepers and trainers. Trainers could change it's name a dozen times over it's life, but it would still be #56932, with a name of no consequence,regardless of it's spelling or accented pronunciation, as is done now for the most part.
Wade
Another possibility for the 'Bamboo II' elephant is an elephant listed in the North American Regional Studbook for the Asian Elephant, 'Bimbo II.' With a Temporary Studbook Number and Lost to Follow-up, she is listed as arriving to Louis Goebel in February 1961, Jungleland in 1962 (a possible redundancy?) and finally to Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, California, in October 1969.
Radar,
ReplyDeleteI thought of the possibility of "Bimbo II" but I didn't want to suggest it, and muck up anymore what has become a muck up. Stay on it, Pal. One way or the other you will either find the fact's or have to be institutionalized. LOL The elephant data base is a heck of a deal for sure, but is difficult to navigate. Is it just me, being electronically challenged or do you find it confusing at times?
Wade
Wade,
ReplyDeleteThank you for allowing me to repost some of our conversations from your blog to mine. Getting through the muck is what it is all about with animals and mudshows.
I agree there are portions of Elephant.se that are difficult to read and find. The previous locations feature can be confusing and missing information as well that has already been input. I believe Dan has plans to reorganize certain portions in the future. A lot of great changes have already been incorporated. It is exciting to see the site grow and evolve as time and information progress. What kind of changes do you think would be helpful?
Radar,
ReplyDeleteIt is such a massive, massive undertaking that Dan has taken on that in a best case scenario will be difficult to make "perfect," and the hardest thing is just what we have discussed here. An animal may have 4 or 5 different names, and different way's of spelling each name. Add to that many zoological parks that have changed their name's from what they were originally called ie. often the name of the city park the facility was located in, to a city name, to a state name, from zoo to Nature Center etc. I also suggest the obvious scientific "feel" and content of the site get's dumbed down with the many,many ad's, instead of just relevant material of further education, such as book listings.
Wade Burck
Thanks Wade for valuable input. I hope, during this summer, to redesign the site a lot, so all comments, suggestions and critics, is great!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, all feedback is what gives me energy to invest more time and energy, developing the site further.
Your ideas of id nrs is of course logical, and mostly used as studbook numbers within europe, north america and australia.
Some of the individuals in the database also have their "local" id nrs, as well as microchip numbers.
Thailand will soon, as first country that Im aware of, setup DNA record for each captive elephant, which will also be a valuable identification mark.
What I plaan to implement with te database:
First, I plan to make a split of the names into a "prename" cathegory for all Plai, Sidor, Pang and Mae names, since those are just a prefix, but misunderstood written together with the name as one word in europe and america.
Secondly, Im not sure that writing alternative names in brackets is the best solution when searching the database, hence maybe they will be submitted into an alternative names field.
Thirdly, I think the site would win if the third, right column is removed, giving more space for the present center column, containing the actual information.