These photo's were taken just a few weeks before Ziggy "laid down, rolled over, and died." He look's in pretty good shape, and his death has been attributed to old age. I wonder if he sustained unknown internal injuries during his fall into the moat a few months prior to these photographs? Note the "hook" on the outside nail. Not much foot work had been done.
Friday, October 21, 2011
For Bjorn--Ziggy 1975
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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2 comments:
Wade,
maybe you're right, his weight must be around 5000 - 6000 kg so the risk that he sustaind internal injuriesis after his fall seems a good gues to me, also intresting is the way he is chained, I know from my own observations in both zoos and circuses and of course from you, that normaly an elephants left front foot and right back foot should be chained, but in this picture his left front and left back foot are chained I wonder why they did that?.
Bjorn,
If you look back at older Ziggy picture's I have posted you will see that he is kept with his left side against the back wall and door so he was facing out. The chains go out holes in the wall and were most likely winch operated, allowing them to "winch" him slack or "winch" him against the wall, most likely for entering the stall. The chains on both left feet would make "winching" him sideways easier, then if on opposite legs. In pictures the loose female was often placed on the right side of him as a blocker(a tough elephant has a hard time going through another elephant to whack a person.) You may have been right when you commented on the pictures of him laying in the moat. The chains were not being used to upright him, but rather were all ready on his legs when he fell in. In the top picture on this thread, which I added after you commented, which isn't fair :) you will note him coming to the top of the moat with both left leg chains on. He couldn't have gotten to the public area.
Wade
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