Narrating the correlation of elephants as related to their import, groupings, breeding and transfers,
along with other elephant related topics.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Father's Photographs - Rio Grande Zoo

The following pictures were taken in April 1994 at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the time indicated, three elephants resided at the zoo - 20 year old year old Asian elephant Alice, her year and a half old daughter Rozie and 32 year old African elephant Tia.

Photo 1, Rio Grande Zoo
Photo Courtesy of M Easley

Tia arrived to the zoo in June 1964 from a location only named 'BOLACK' in the North American Regional Studbook for the African Elephant. More information is sought regarding this facility. She died in Albuquerque in May 1996 of a cardiovascular problem.

Alice was purchased by the Rio Grande Zoo 12 years later from the African Lion Safari Park in Port Clinton, Ohio. In November 1987, Alice was transferred to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for a four year breeding loan. She returned pregant after breeding with the California facility's bull Ranchipur. Her daughter Rozie was born the following year.

Rozie still resides with her mother in New Mexico and gave birth to a calf of her own in September 2009.

Photo 2, Rio Grande Zoo
Photo Courtesy of M Easley

Photo 3, Rio Grande Zoo
Photo Courtesy of M Easley

2 comments:

  1. Great photos Ryan thanks for sharing I've had a bit of a search for 'Bolack' but all I can come up with is a Tom Bolack - who was an oilman in New Mexico. He set up the Bolack Museum of Fish and Wildlife.

    Also I've posted up a list of the elephants owned by Wirth's Circus that I have found during the course of my research. You might want to check it out there are a few names there that aren't on Dan's Database.

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  2. Thank you very much for the comment and research, Liz. Following your lead, I found a Sports Illustrated article from May 1963 that links New Mexico's Lieutenant Governor Tom Bolack and his safari companion, Dr. Frank Hibben, chairman of the game commission. Between the 1950s-1960s, New Mexico created an exotic game program, releasing wild-caught birds, fish, exotic antelope and other hoofed mammals from Africa and Asia collected by Hibben into the Canadian River wilderness. Many animals that the university professor could not release due to state and local laws were delivered to the city zoo at Albuquerque. Hibben was chairman of the Albuquerque Zoological Board from 1960-1970 and director in 1977, again linking him to the possibility of importing Tia for the zoo. References are made to his relationship with a Hamburg-based animal dealer (possibly the Hagenbeck or Ruhe families).

    >> http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1074821/index.htm

    >> http://sw-guns.com/hibben.htm1

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I eagerly anticipate associating with new individuals with an interest or history in elephants, elephant history and elephant record keeping. If you have further information regarding the animals or locations questioned in the article, please leave a comment or message me in an effort to complete their records for elephant historians.