Gary Hill, one of Great Adventures original Wardens, and Rip, who is in the video below in 1974. There have been questions in the past on what happened to all the elephants that were imported in the early to mid 70's. There seems to be no valid record's ever kept. I can't even begin to count the number of elephants in the video below, but the elephant data base lists Great Adventure as having 8 elephants of unknown parentage, including Rip, wild caught, all arriving on the same day in 1974, with the exception of Bertha and Tanya who arrived two weeks later from Hemmingford Park Safari, in Canada.
Like the Carson and Barnes mystery of "where did they all go/what happened to them" in 1975-76 Carson and Barnes had 51 elephants on the show, three adult Asians, a juvenile African, and 47, that's right 47, Asian calves between the ages of 2 and 5. The elephant data base lists Carson and Barnes as having 18 elephants, 2 captive born, 9 of unknown parentage, and 7 of unknown parentage, age, or where they came from!!!!!!
Courtesy of Gary Hill
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Great Adventure Safari Park
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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7 comments:
Wade actually 4 of them came from Canada. Tanya, Targa, Lucy and Bertha. I brought the 25 out of Uganda in April of 74.
Gary,
Targa and Lucy are not listed, as being at Great Adventure.
Wade
Targa and Bertha are dead, the names in the stud book I have (is acouple of years old) has them in it. Bertha just died last year.
Gary,
Thankfully there are records being kept today. It is just incredible to think that there were animals that "disappeared" with no trace or knowledge of their destination. Try to sell a registered horse without the papers, and see how much it brings. About 12 cent's a pound is how much.
Wade
So no one has any idea where the remainder of those twenty five went? I know there was discrepancy in the birth of the elephant that was born there; at one point she was listed twice in the studbook under different names. You can read the story on her page:
http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1286
I have asked once and never received an answer - are the elephants at Great Adventure free contact or PC?
Radar, I spent the first two years up there just getting them where I could get around them and work them as a herd. I wasn't allowed to chain or train so to speak. I had quite afew I could get around without worrying I was going to get thumped! The first week they were charging anything that got near them in their pens. Today lucky, I saw the benefits of how they still work as a herd as they did when they were small. Of course they all learned their names because they were put up at night in smaller groups and for the most part people that followed me worked them in the same manner. A few elephant men worked there over the years, Frank Murrey most likely had the most success because the management finally realized that someone needed to be able to handle them individually. The big male Rip, I understand developed a bad additude towards one guy that worked there for a while and it was good he isn't there anymore, so I was told last month.
Seems all those 25 were belonging to the gruop of 50 elephants cought by Richard Chipperfield?
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