Jim Alexander, I didn't realize San Diego had a sea lion show. Was it in house or a contracted act?
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Vintage San Diego Zoo brochure
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
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7 comments:
The San Diego Zoo has had a sea lion act since its early days. For many years it was trained and presented by Capt. Bennie Kirkbride. He was one of the Capt. Winston boys along with Max Morris. For many years the sea lions were a "dry" or stage act that did the Winston pony riding routine. Later a moat was added around the stage and some water work was added. Bennie had some spectacular animals that performed some unequaled behaviors (Bennie would call them tricks). He also did some movie work like Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to the Beverly Hillbillies. Bennie retired in the early 1980s. The Zoo contined with sea lion shows in different formats.
I believe Kirkbride once had a northern fur seal in his act, only one I ever heard of that performed.
The brochure pictures a juvenile proboscis monkey. San Diego got some in the early 1960s as I recall. Being leaf eaters, they are hard to maintain in captivity. I have seen them in San Diego, Colorado Springs, Bronx and Cincinnati (on loan from Bronx).
The Bronx zoo had a fine group of them in its Asian Jungle House in the 1990s, including a male or two with enormous pendulous noses.
Now they are all gone and I do not believe there is a single proboscis monkey to be seen in USA.
I uderstand there is a fabulous exhibit of them in the Singapore zoo. Some efforts have been made to get them from there but the AZA taxon group opposes it.
Richard,
I recall the Proboscis Monkey's that the Bronx had, and I did not realize they were gone. How unfortunate. They and the Chinese Golden Monkey are two of the most unique primates, and are my personal favorite of the smaller primates. How many US zoo's house spectacular troops of Mandrill, Gelada baboons, do you know?
Wade
Wade, I looked on ISIS and found that Disney's Animal Kingdom has the largest troop of mandrills in US zoos, with 3 males and 7 females. The rest have very small collections. The Detroit Zoo has two female mandrills who we may see on Sunday, since we plan to go if the weather is nice. As far as Gelada Baboons, the Bronx Zoo has 5 males and 5 females, the National Zoo has 1 male, and the San Diego Zoo has 3 females, and that is all for US holdings. I wonder if there are SSP's for these animals, or if they are being "managed to extinction", a term I always find very sad.
Mary Ann
Wade, I can't be sure, but I did not see SSP's for any of the four species that you mentioned, so it is possible that are being "managed to extinction". As you probably know, this means that they are allowed to live out their lives, but they will not be bred, nor will any more be acquired, nor will any conservation attempts be made for them. Such is the situation for margays, the little South American cats that are smaller than ocelots. The thinking supposedly goes something like this. We can't save them all, so we evaluate what we have, what our chances are of saving a particular species, how much room we have in our zoos, etc., and some species are selected for management with breeding recommendations, and some are "managed to extinction".
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
I agree realistically and whole heartedly with the thought. Animals breed to propagate and need almost ideal situations. Humans make love. Guess which one is going to over populate?
Wade
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