Sunday, May 18, 2008

White Buffalo/Bronx Zoo mystery on the May 8th post answered?

If you recall I ran this picture on May 8, 2008 and said it might be the Bronx Zoo as the picture had Bronx Zoo? 1942 written on the back. As I have expressed in the past many old zoo pictures are guessed at or mis marked, and you have to go by objects in the picture for proper identification. Instead of the Bronx Zoo as originally suggested, I now think this is a picture of Little Medicine, son of Big Medicine. He had pink eyes, and was totally blind. I have always questioned the physical condition of the buffalo in this picture, and he being totally albino would explain a lot. He was shipped to the National Zoo when he was 6 months old and lived until 1949, and the picture was at least dated 1942.
Today I was at an antiques flea market, getting my hand dusty and dirty, digging through boxes. I was paging through a book of Audubon Prints when I found this post card inside. What got me excited was on the back it said, "In 1937 a true albino was born. It was sired by this black-capped buffalo bull. It was sent to the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. where it later died." I bought the card for a buck, and came home and looked through an old Washington Zoo guide book. I could not find the same building that is in the first picture, but I did find three examples of the identical wire fence and frame around the tree for protection. I am going to now assume that the White Buffalo was at the National Zoo

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