Amy, Gargantua was a famous circus gorilla personality, back in the "good old days" This is him above. Google in Gargantua for much more information, or hope Richard Reynolds comes here, and tells you more then an encyclopedia or internet knows.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
For Amy
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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7 comments:
Interesting. I didn't know Ringling offered Gorillas in their shows. Do current laws and regulations force circuses not to use certain exotic animals?
Again the proxy site wont let me re-log on.
Amy,
I don't know what a proxy site is, and why it won't let you log in. Ringling had many animals in the 50's and earlier plus gorillas.
Circus's as well as anybody else can use what animals they want as long as they are able to meet the housing standard,
Wade
My work has blocked blogspot and many other sites such as my email accounts and myspace. Proxy sites are sites designed for you to get around the block from work, or in most of the times, school. For some reason, it wont let me login and sometimes I can't click on certain blogs such as Margaret's today. Most of the time i can get around it, but sometimes they catch me!
It is interesting that they can use any animal, yet you rarely see anything different from the normal tigers and elephants. I would love to see some domesticated skunks work with the clowns. Would be quite humorous.
Amy,
It is fairly easy to provide a proper habitat for a feline or elephant in the circus. Also elephants provided the additional revenue of elephant rides, and were traditionally used to set up the tents. It would be impossible to provide properly for Gorillas and many other animals in a moving situation.
Small animals are not very good to use in the larger format of the American Building Circus, as they are hard to see from the very high seats. That was the downside of GGW's leopard act, even with 20 or more animals as he utilized.
In the smaller European tent circus's, where you almost sit in the audiences lap during the performance, they may be more appropriate. Shamsheva, a female performer with a house cat act, was much more impressive in the Big Apple Circus one ring tent, then she was with the Greatest Show on Earth, but with the downsizing and one ring tent formats that are being utilized in America today, smaller animals and animal acts may become the norm. The Russian Circus has done incredible work with small domestic animals, ranging from rats to ducks to skunks to porcupines.
Wade
Wade,
Ringling had a porcupine this year in "Over the Top". Was nice to see, but would have loved to see the porcupine do more. Driving on my way to work this morning, I remember the "Reptile Man". The Reptiled Man would bring in everything from snapping turtles to 20 ft long pythons.
Has Ringling or other smaller circuses done shows with reptiles?
Amy,
A porcupine physically can't do much more then what you saw. They are a rodent, who can do "rodent" type things and not much else. Again, what an animal can do is dictated by their physical abilities and has little to do with intelligence.
Wade
Amy,
A number of small shows in Europe have "reptile" acts. Pretty boring and they are available in most major zoos as "keeper demonstrations" or "educational shows"
Wade
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