Steve, In my opinion "handsome" should make you gasp. Not too tall and thin and not to short and thick. All the part's/component's of the body "tie" together, with the back legs slightly shorter. Domed head with thick at the girth tusks, slight "sunkedness" at the temples, very pigmented in the face, with big ears very thin and fine at the tips described as "pretty ears" that flair forward and down. The boy in the top photo is almost perfect. They shouldn't look like sad sacks or clod hoppers. They should look regal, dignified, stately, elegant, charismatic, kind, and smart. They should look like the Lord of the Jungle. In addition to their pretty flawless genotype, they are working elephants which accounts for their stunning physical condition. Not fat and not skinny, but fit. An athlete, a warrior, a Spartan.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
For Steve Robinson--Handsome Male Elephants
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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4 comments:
In this set of pics the bull at the top looks like a runt.
The bull at Melbourne Zoo [Australia] is a quite tall bull but he looks like he ran into a brick wall. He doesn't have enough length to make him in good proportion.
Steve,
As he is not posed or stood, like a halter horse or show dog I think what you are seeing is just how he is standing. Note he is higher in the back chained to the concrete pad, and has his front feet back to stay out of the wet and to not stand on his food. I only say that based on the "compression" of his ribs and hip. I have always wondered if historically a lumber operation where a lot of animals were gotten from were actually good ones, or did they sell the inferior animals to the unsuspecting who only wanted an elephant regardless of it's quality. I wonder if a circus or zoo every purchased an elephant on the criteria of let's pick one, gait or movement. Did they really study it to see that it's head/neck came out of it's shoulders at a proper angle, or did they just grab anything that had a trunk and tail? A lot of folks got "snookered" back in the 70's and 80's when they were buying and importing million dollar Arabian horse's from famous old government studs in Poland and Russia. The studs weren't selling Big Shit, they were selling son's and daughter's of Big Shit, which in their programs were culls. Example, Krone's Marbach Arabian's while being far superior to most circus Arabians you can almost bet Marbach's culls. Some of the finest horses available, but not all that, just because they have Marbach in their name.
Wade
I think you are right - and not just elephants and horses.
A well known circus identity in this country would breed any tiger, brother to sister or whatever, as long as it had stripes. He knew that circuses and zoos would buy them because they were "tigers".
Eventually, we woke up to this.
Tigers are a lost cause in Australia but we started to selectively breed our lions. Now we have zoos knocking at our door for lion stock because they recognise that we have gone to a lot of trouble over several generations now to selectively breed good stock.
Steve,
I think the key word is "well known", because we had a boat load of them in the colonies, as well as all over Europe. Like the state studs I mentioned, uninformed folks were under the assumption that if it came from "so and so" it was good. If you research a lot of the "big names" in the animal biz of the past ended up being the dirtiest. From trainers, to breeders, to dealers, to zoos. The same can be said for the domestic industry, like horses, cattle, dogs, etc. etc.
Your Cadillac isn't better then mine just because you bought it from Elvis Presley and I bought mine from Elmer Fudd. With animals it isn't near that simple.
Wade
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