Tonglaw above was the father of Packy below with his mother Belle. Packy was born April 14, 1962, and made a major sensation being the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years. Later breeding success's helped fund the atrocious exhibits for the bears. It is a complete mystery why they were successful with the elephants and others weren't. The facilities for the elephants were very basic, bordering on the inhumane, though they have improved greatly. I guess even with the greatest scientific minds in the world suggesting what they will need, the most important cog in a breeding program is a male and female that will do the deal.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Vintage Portland Zoo--Portland,Oregon
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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21 comments:
Portland has had a record number of births at our zoo, 27 in all. Packy has sired 7 calves, and Thonglaw 15. Presently there are 6 elephants here. Packy,Rama,Tusko,Shine(Sung-Surin),Rose-Tu, and Chendra....
Sir Julian Huxley visited the Portland Zoo elephants I think when he was Secretary of the London Zoological Society.
My daughter lived in Portland before moving to Phoenix a year and a half ago. I liked the the zoo in Portland before they remodeled it, because they had more cats, which is my thing. They had an old Siberian male tiger named Czar, who passed away, and a very playful snow leopard named Katrina who went to Winston. They also had an awesome lion named Spike who was housed with his sister. After his nap, he would go over to his sister, nudge her awake, and go onto the roof of his rock shelter and roar for about five minutes. He gathered a crowd around his moated exhibit, who would applaud when the performance was over. They went to Animal Kingdom. Do they still have the Congo ranger station, with the hides of a baby elephant and a male lion? I don't remember what the third animal was. I was not expecting to come upon it, so I cried the first time I saw it.
Mary Ann
I could be wrong, but I believe that Portland finally upgraded their elephant facilities in the 1980's. I may be misremembering this -- but I believe that both Portland and Tacoma followed Calgary in creating protected contact environments for managing mature bulls. The irony is that today so many elephant managers advocate protected contact for managing all elephants -- taking a great idea... a system that allows mature males and problem females to be managed safely...and turning it in to a bit of animal segregation when it's applied to elephants that thrive when free handled with lots of contact. Ideally no one system should be "absolute."
Ben
(Temporarily home in California from the circus wars.)
I will tip everyone off on a insider secret from the Portland Zoo. The first live birth was nothing more then a publicity stunt to solicit funds for their new "breeding program" If someone does the research you will see that Packy was imported as a yearling elephant, and if you look at the newspaper photos of the day Packy was allegedly "born" he is quite a bit larger then a new born elephant. The end result was good, the zoo got lots of funds donated to the breeding program, that is on of the most successful in the world. But it was built on a farse.
Hmmm...Barnum used to claim newborn elephants using that slight of hand. For a number of years Portland was friendly with circuses, until the AZA tried to hide from PETA by disassociating with animals used in entertainment. During that period they worked hard, thought not real successfully with artificial insemination in Asians.
Ben
Casey,
I have never heard that or even a hint at it. Where can we get access to these photos? Point me in the direction of this research and I'll do a Bill O'Reilly in a heartbeat. There are a couple of research aces on this blog who would probably relish the assignment.
Wade
Ben,
What, and give up show business!!! Take a rest friend, but don't look for it to get better real soon.
Regards,
Wade
Casey,
Go on You tube and type in Packy elephant birth. Have they put out a "phony" tape of some birth?
Wade
Mary Ann, I am going to the Portland Zoo tomorrow and will check out the Congo Ranger Station for you....
Margaret, thank you. If I remember it correctly, it was sort of an open thatched hut, staffed by "native" rangers, and displaying "confiscated" hides. As I said, one was a male lion hide, and one was a baby elephant hide, and I think there was a third one. This was 5 - 10 years ago. Some years after that, there was a hysterically funny incident when my three-year- old grandson observed a bull elephant for the first time and drew a crowd with his excited comments. LOL
Mary Ann
Good Morning Mary Ann, glad to report there are NO animal hides at the Portland Zoo.
Margaret,
Thats just great. First they ban smoking at the zoos, and now they are removing the dead specimens. Has the whole world gone nuts. William Hornaday, may he rest in peace, needs to arise and give everybody a swift kick right out of political correctness, and back into reality.
Wade
Wade,you can smoke at the Portland Zoo. They have areas just for us.The guide told me they removed the hides because of the lovely PETA people....The are even required to have a place set aside,outside the gate,just for them to protest.
Mary Ann,
I don't know what your grandsons thoughts were on the bull elephant "dropping", but when an old girlfriend and I were watching King Tusk one day, and he dropped, without missing a beat she turned to me and said, "That reminds me. You promised to take me out to eat tonight." LOL That's not true, I made that up. LOL
Wade
Margaret, was the Congo ranger station still there? Was it being staffed? It dawned on me that the "native rangers" may have been volunteers, and at other zoos it is the volunteers that usually show the skins. At Toledo, the volunteers are sometimes out with a polar bear skin, but they point out that it is one that died at the zoo of natural causes.
Mary Ann
Wade, I'll tell you the whole story, and you can censor it it you want. It was during Zoo Lights at Christmas time, and the path led through the elephant barn, and Andrew was being pushed in this stroller. He looked at the elephant and exclaimed loudly "I see his penis!" and some people started giggling. David, his dad, to distract him asked "Do you see his ears?", to which Andrew replied "I see his penis!", and more people giggled louder. This went on with the ears, tail, etc., until David asked "Do you see his trunk?" and Andrew replied "Yes, it looks just like his penis!" By then, everyone in the elephant barn was cracking up.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
And you believe them, and find it acceptable if it is a zoo specimen that died of natural causes? Many of the wrongs done with captive animals, from a professionals point of view, are done in a effort to keep the public perceptions happy. Is a confiscated skin, from a poached wild animal acceptable, if the seizing wildlife agency donates it for educational purposes? Is a snake skin acceptable but a baby elephant skin not? Is a white tiger skin acceptable, to compare to a gold tiger skin?
Wade
Wade
Margaret and Mary Ann,
That's good to know that they haven't completely "flipped." It must be all the hippies living up there, that is keeping them straight.LOL I am also glad, that you gave the reason for removing the hides and skins.
Mary Ann,
In a effort to educate, often times, the most well intentioned, most well meaning people give groups like Peta ammunition, by looking at an animal emotionally instead of scientifically. If there were more of a balance in those philosophy's, one of the animals rights guns would be removed. If that makes sense, and it is expressed with all due respect.
Wade
Wade, you raise some very valid points and questions. Before I analyze them rationally, I have to repeat that my reaction to the baby elephant and the lion was a gut reaction that I was not prepared for. I saw the holes in the skin where the lion's eyes should have been, and the small size of the baby elephant, and the information that they were confiscated poached skins was overwhelming to me. It's one thing to read about poaching, or to see documentaries on TV, but it's quite another to hold the evidence in your hands. Do I think that they should not have these things because they upset some people? No, because it may be what some people need to wake up to the realities of poaching.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
That's why they take school children and tour groups and pack them into the railroad cattle cars used, and slam the door. It is supposed to be overwhelming. So overwhelming, that we are ever vigilant and prepared to stop anything like that from ever, ever, happening again, for the sake of humanity.
Wade
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