This photo is dated 1969. I wonder if it is a young Sukie? It also looks like Belle Isle kept their young elephants in the Childrens Zoo.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Ghost Zoo-- Belle Isle Zoo Elephant
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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9 comments:
I saw Suki about May 1970 at the Police Circus in STL. Paul and Dorothy Kelly had acquired her from Detroit that winter and she was about seven feet tall. Dorothy worked her with peppermint candy (she was a good sea lion trainer). Radar would know for sure but I think Suki was with us for awhile in STL -- I think she was here from Springfield, MO Dickerson Park.
Jim,
I didn't know sea lions ate peppermint candy. The great bear trainers use candy corn or jelly beans.
Wade
It was a very brief time. She returned to Dickerson Park Zoo, where she originally arrived after my dad bought her from Rex. He had saved her from being put down after the incident on the Beatty show with Logan. She now resides at the "crazy house" in Tacoma, Washington.
Wade,
Dummy-up about that peppermint candy for sea lions, everyone will start to use it. As to bear treats I preferred vanilla wafers used by Wally Naghtin. Not the variety of jelly bean flavors but more filling.
Jim,
Best I ever knew used chocolate chip cookie.
Wade
Radar,
What's the "crazy house?" I have never heard of that before.
Wade
The Port Defiance Zoo describes themselves as a "national leader in handling elephants considered too dangerous to be kept and trained using traditional methods." They acquired Hanako in December 1997 from the Portland Zoo because of her "unpredictable and moody" disposition. There she joined Suki and Cindy. Suki had arrived in March 1996 from Dickerson Park Zoo after she slammed a keeper against a wall. Cindy was the zoo's first "troubled" elephant, arriving in February 1992 with a history of grabbing and biting people. In August 2005, Bamboo arrived from the Woodland Park Zoo after being unable to cohabitate with the younger elephants and calf. However, she was unable to be integrated into the group and was returned to her previous home ten months later.
Jim,
The Studbook states Paul Kelly purchased Suki from Detroit in February 1969 and sold to the Brookfield Zoo in June 1969. Could you be off a year on your observation of her when she was in St. Louis?
Reverse, Reverse -
We never returned to the original question. Suki was acquired by the zoo in 1965. Obviously this is not her four years later. Perhaps we are looking at young Bruno, recorded in the Studbook as acquired from the International Animal Exchange in May 1969 and returning to the Hunts that September (following the theme of a baby elephant for the Children's Zoo). No further records exist - Lost to Follow-up.
Mike Rice did not import his Bruno until 1972, sold to Hershey Park.
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