Saturday, July 28, 2012

Another big gentleman! (From Gary Hill)

Capt this is Rip that is at Great Adventure. He is the only male out of 6 I had there. This photo was in Aug of 09 and I stand 6 foot..I would age him at 40 to 42 yrs old. He was the largest male I brought back. Richard the second largest was sent to Japan in the 80's I believe.. I am sure he has grown some since 09?

10 comments:

Larry Louree said...

Gary (or some of the other animal care folks):

I know that we had elephants "walk" through the chain link fence a couple of times at Circus World. How well does this steel cable "fence" work in keeping the bulls in their enclosures? I know that visually and to allow inspection of the bulls is easier because it's more open, but like the cable barrier down the middle of the interstate, is this as secure in containing them.

GaryHill said...

Does the job for this guy and I think they can run alittle electic through it? I dont remember any elephants run through the fences at CW? We did have some runaways, ie Bonnie. Reggie one of Jewells lions ran loose one day but he got tired in the deep sand and quit when I caught up with him and grabbed his tail...

GaryHill said...

I have some videos on youtube of the herd back in 74-76. In one of them Rip is standing in front of my truck and standing on a stump. He was of course alot smaller but he put his front feet on the stump and put his trunk up like he was sayin Look at Me!! His right ear has a large tear and his tail is a stump. Came over from Uganda that way, must of run into a problem with some lions when with his mom I always thought??

Chic Silber said...

Was that the park in Jackson NJ

Gary & is he still there

GaryHill said...

Yes Chic, they bought out almost all of our animals at World of Animals in Mesquite, Tx. We shipped them to NJ and Canada and my elephants when to Ringling and Rex got one male, he renamed Gardner..Rip is the only male left there with 7 females out of the 28 I had. As I understand he only sired one calf and the sold it off???

Larry Louree said...

Gary:

I remember one morning at CW when Security wouldn't let us in the gate because "the africans had gone for a walk" they explained that the africans had gotten off the picket line and gone for a walk among the LP tanks (and taken out the chain link fence). The captain and Anna Mae went over and asked them to go back to the barn and that was the end of it.

I noticed in the pics from Buckle's visit to the Ringling Ranch, that they used the heavy steel pipe type fence to corral them in.

And I guess like any security type system, if they want to go for a walk about bad enough, they are going to get through it.

Chic Silber said...

Thanks Gary & I remember Gardner

& Reed that Rex had along with a

3rd elephant I can't recall

I've got some stories about Jackson

that I'll tell you sometime

Larry that reminds me of a similar

situation where the Beatty herd

ran off to a wooded area near the

lot somewhere in rural Connecticut

Rex & Sid went out & also invited

them all back to the lot

GaryHill said...

Larry, the Bonnie and the other african did run. The day of the fence ordeal, I must not have been there??:) The Capt surely would remember better than me. I always took the ride elephants to the other side of the park after we mucked up the outside lot.

Larry Louree said...

I think the walk about in the LP tank farm was a bigger deal to the security folks than it was to any body else. The security folks could have subbed for Barney Fife most days. I think it was just another routine day in the elephant barn by all accounts.

GaryHill said...

I remember in Winter Quarters I would ride horses to leg them up on the beach in Venice, but when the Capt took the herd there one time, I remember the City Cops not being very happy with us??