The Circus "NO SPIN ZONE": 09/12/13

Pygmy/Dwarf Elephants--Island Dwarfing/Insular Dwarfism

Photograph of a fossil cast of a pygmy species of Elephas/Palaeoloxodon falconeri skeleton taken at the North American Museum of Ancient Life.

Wikipedia:
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals over a number of generations when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is distinct from the intentional creation of dwarf breeds, called dwarfing. This process has occurred many times throughout evolutionary history, with examples including dinosaurs, like Europasaurus, and modern animals such as elephants and their relatives. This process, and other "island genetics" artifacts, can occur not only on traditional islands, but also in other situations where an ecosystem is isolated from external resources and breeding. This can include caves, desert oases, isolated valleys and isolated mountains ("sky islands"). Insular dwarfism is one aspect of the more general "island rule", which posits that when mainland animals colonize islands, small species tend to evolve larger bodies, and large species tend to evolve smaller bodies.
There are several proposed explanations for the mechanism which produces such dwarfism.
One is a selective process where only smaller animals trapped on the island survive, as food periodically declines to a borderline level. The smaller animals need fewer resources and smaller territories, and so are more likely to get past the break-point where population decline allows food sources to replenish enough for the survivors to flourish. Smaller size is also advantageous from a reproductive standpoint, as it entails shorter gestation periods and generation times.
In the tropics, small size should make thermoregulation easier.
Among herbivores, large size confers advantages in coping with both competitors and predators, so a reduction or absence of either would facilitate dwarfing; competition appears to be the more important factor.
For both herbivores and carnivores, island size, the degree of island isolation and the size of the ancestral continental species appear not to be of major direct importance to the degree of dwarfing. However, when considering only the body masses of recent top herbivores and carnivores, and including data from both continental and island land masses, the body masses of the largest species in a land mass were found to scale to the size of the land mass, with slopes of about 0.5 log(body mass/kg) per log(land area/km²). There were separate regression lines for endothermic top predators, ectothermic top predators, endothermic top herbivores and (on the basis of limited data) ectothermic top herbivores, such that food intake was 7 to 24-fold higher for top herbivores than for top predators, and about the same for endotherms and ectotherms of the same trophic level (this leads to ectotherms being 5 to 16 times heavier than corresponding endotherms.)

Pigmy elephants, at the Surrey Zoological Gardens 1854

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_elephant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_elephant

http://www.livescience.com/25538-pygmy-elephants-genetics.html

From Zoological/Menagerie Historian Richard "RJR" Reynolds

In my earlier message I referred to this photo (below) which now has a caption:

Rangers ride tamed elephants at the Imire Safari Ranch in Harare, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 1995

The photo was part of a news article about Zimbabwean strong man Mugabe's plan to seize white owned game ranches in his country where the above photo was taken.

"What was your earlier message RJR for completion of this history lesson? See link below."

From Zoological/Menagerie Historian Richard "RJR" Reynolds

Alan - -

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I do recall that Rex Williams had a white rhino. His name was Thor, like so - -

Rex's wife Eva and Thor - - -

Above is Roman Schmitt and his young female black rhino Kenya and female African elephant Jenny. He got Jenny from Jurgen Schulz in 1978. This is in the barn at Circus World, Haines City, FL. I saw the same scene in person in 1984 with both begging for treats.

Here is Roman riding Kenya in a circus performance.

The photo(in the prior link above) was part of a news article about Zimbabwean strong man Mugabe's plan to seize white owned game ranches in his country where the above photo was taken.

It was furnished by Kathie Lindemann Schulz. Her father,Roland Lindemann, was the founder and owner of the Catskill Game Farm. Her former husband Jurgen is (was) an animal catcher/dealer whose grandfather was the renowned East African animal man Christoph Schulz. Here is Kathie in 1960 with a rhino and elephant at Carr Hartley's Kenya ranch - -

As for Zimbabwe (nee Rhodesia) Kathie sent me this fine and touching memoir of her years there, to wit - -

Richard,

I lived in Rhodesia for two capturing seasons with Jurgen when we were married back in 1966 and 1967. I went there as a bride of three months. The only thing the country lacked was petrol. Otherwise, it had become very self-sufficient. People rallied together and worked as a unit...black and white together in a happy environment. We loved the time we spent in that beautiful country.

We had a custom-made caravan with a double bed (unknown in those days) from Jurgen's parents which I pulled with my American Ford car while Jurgen drove the Mercedes tractor trailer. We spent most of our seven to eight months each year parked in one of the camps in what was then Wankie National Park. Those days on safari will be a special part of my life forever. To watch a lioness stalk it's prey at sunset while I am up in a tree hide while the men were capturing elephants below is something unforgettable.

Sometimes we lived in a thatched roof hut or lodge if we were entertaining American Zoo friends. I am so glad to have seen it in the days of Ian Smith as Prime Minister. Salisbury and Bulawayo were such beautiful cities especially when the jacaranda and other trees were in bloom. The streets were lined with bird of paradise and ginger. It was a tropical wonderland lush and green as well.

Marlin Perkins would fly out periodically to be photographed in the Wild Kingdom series. Jim Fowler and entourage were following us while we captured our animals each year. They had an agreement with the Rhodesian Government to photograph what we were capturing. Our family supplied a service to the government by transporting White Rhinos from Umfolosi National Park near Durban to the Rhodesian Game Reserves where they had none. No monetary exchange was allowed so we provided a service. In exchange we were allowed to capture and export "X" number of each specie annually. We knew the country well.

It is indeed a pity what has happened to that beautiful land.

Kathie

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Hope you enjoy

Richard Reynolds

"Great stuff, RJR. Thank you for sharing."

Ezemvelo to auction white rhinos

September 22, 2011

Thirty white rhinos will be auctioned next month at the iMfolozi game reserve, says Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

"The auction is aimed at disposing white rhino that are surplus to the ecological requirements of the various protected areas," Ezemvelo's rhino security strategist Jabulani Ngubane said.
The auction on October 1 was part of a larger "disposal strategy" which incorporated internal translocations and donations to private and communal land owners, he said.
"The sale of rhino to private land owners has been an essential ingredient in saving the species from extinction and remains an important part of its continued survival," he said.
Ngubane said rhino conservation successes were being undermined by poaching. He said 23 rhinos had been poached in KwaZulu-Natal reserves so far this year. The province was beefing up measures to stop this.
"We are negotiating to get a helicopter which will be on standby for the operations," Ngubane said.