Pancho Aguilar, owner of Circus Atayde(Aguilar). Folks talk about "hands on" circus owner's, but I want to tell you Pancho wrote the book on it. First in the stable in the morning(although being a "Gringo" I beat him by a half hour) to see that the animals have had a good night, Poncho supervises every wash day(photo above) from the front entrance of the show. Incredibly he doesn't tell you what to do, only asks if there is any thing you need to make your job easier. He was a bit mystified this morning when he asked me if I wanted him to buy me two "white lion babies" and I replied, "not really, I would prefer if you didn't." :)
All the animals are bathed 4 times a week, Sun., Tues., Thurs., and Fri. I had no idea how hard it was to keep a white camel "white." Standing in the background in the picture above are two of the 6 horse Gypsy Vanner act on the show. The young man in the ball cap in the middle, working hard and washing his camels, and not texting broads or running an elephant blog, is Josip Gardner grandson of Gene/Jim Garner.
Gene Garner from the "history channel:"
Gene was a remarkable guy and like Wayne Franzen, despite the lack of any background with exotic animals could train whatever the situation presented.
I first met him and Rebecca when they came to Carson & Barnes with the leopard-dog arena act that D.R. bought from John Cuneo.
Some years later Gene delivered the same act to Mexico after it was purchased by Gran Circo Bells and wound up staying. He eventually married one of the Bells daughters and even took the name "Jim Bells".
Tomorrow morning after tiger practice, I am going to see if young Josip can stick Kenya the bull giraffe. If it works out, he should be riding it into the ring as an opening to the camel and horse act within the week.
6 of the 8 eating after the morning work out/practice just before bath time.
Wade,
ReplyDeleteWhat is growing out of the camel's chest?
-Chris
Chris,
ReplyDeleteA non malignant tumor.
Wade
Wade,
ReplyDeleteIn 1964, Gene Garner took the Tom Packs herd to Circo Hermanos Bell after it was purchased from Rudy Brothers Circus (who had purchased the act in 1960 from Louis Goebel).
I have heard one of the animals, Alice, died the following spring 1965. Jean, Penny, Tommy and Shirley are all lost to follow up after their arrival in Mexico.
Does Josip have any information regarding what happened to this herd, or perhaps others in his family?
The Tom Packs Elephants were my first post on ShowMe Elephants. I would be very glad to know what became of some of these animals! Thank you for the help.
>> http://showmeelephants.blogspot.com/2010/09/tom-packs-elephants.html
Ryan
Iremember seeing a picture, many moons ago on The History Channel, back when Rebecca was posting there, of the elephants on Circo Bell
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteThank you. The picture you refer to (that Wade has just reposted) was the only follow up information I could find regarding the act sold to Mexico. Bob Cline tells me that Alice died in spring 1965. I would like to know what happened to the others.
OK, one of Katja's grooms told me a story of a camel with a benign tumor many years ago. I remember he said it was pretty large. I guess that they don't need to remove it if it is not doing harm or causing too much discomfort.
ReplyDeleteHope things are going great down there, it looks like a nice show!
Chris
Chris,
ReplyDeleteMuch like a "wart" which humans remove for cosmetic purposes, a tumor such as this is purely cosmetic. Does the benefit of removing it out weight the danger involved with anesthesia or infection?
Wade
I love this picture directly above. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of framing one of your Bristol Zoo pictures and hanging it on the wall, but the one of the tiger cubs here would be better. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteDid you ever speak to Baron Julius Von Uhl about Tony's parentage? There was a litter of four tiger cubs born at Sioux Falls Zoo on February 1, 1968, two males and two females. I am now convinced that one of the two males was Buck, who went to the Racine Zoo, and fathered a female white tiger cub in 1980, by his daughter Bonnie, which he killed. According to Racine Zoo Buck was born in the Fort Wayne Zoo in Indiana, but at this time the Fort Wayne Zoo was in the habit of acquiring tiger cubs just for the Summer, and then selling them. It doesn't sound as though Fort Wayne Zoo was breeding any tigers of their own in this time frame. Buck arrived in January 28, 1969 at Racine Zoo from the IAE, and his age was then estimated, by them, to be around ten months. If he was born on February 1st, 1968 he would actually have been just shy of his first birthday, so they would have been off by just under two months in guessing his age. Bonnie's mother was born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and was named Star. Bonnie was their one and only offspring on record. Bonnie was subsequently bred to Chequila, Tony's orange brother (and littermate), who belonged to James Witchie. I'm sure that Buck was one of Kubla and Susie's 14 cubs, born in Sioux Falls. The Sioux Falls Zoo also tried to breed Susie to another male tiger, besides Kubla, but he killed her. We might otherwise have had a clue as to whether Susie carried white genes, if any of her offspring by a second mate had also produced white cubs. I spoke to James Witchie's daughter a while back. She had her own pet white tiger at the time. She told me that her mother had some dealings with John Cuneo, collaboratively breeding tigers, and that he went down to Ohio for this. You would probably know more about this than I do. Given this scenario Bonnie and Tony would have been first cousins. Sincerely Paul PS: I saw white rhinos at Toronto Zoo, on TV the other day.
ReplyDeleteIs "Big Boy" an elephant? I also saw gorillas fighting, at Toronto Zoo, on TV. One of them was named Samantha. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDelete