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.
Wade: I was just looking at the website of the Smithsonian Institution Archives and I typed in "white tiger cubs born". A couple of things came up. There is a vintage postcard from 1964 featuring three tiger cubs, including one which was white and is billed as the first white tiger cub born outside of India. Maybe you could post the image. There are two orange cubs who were the white cub's littermates with him on the card. The card doesn't say this, but the orange cubs were a female named Ramani and a male named Ramana, and the white cub was a male named Rajkumar, although the keeper had previously named him Charlie. I believe that Rajkumar and Ramani died of feline distemper despite having been vaccinated. There is also a postcard featuring Moni the white tiger cub born at the National Zoo in 1970. You previously posted a picture of him on your blog from Smithsonian magazine. He died of a neurological disorder at about a year old. The orange male cub who appears on the 1964 postcard, Ramana, was Moni's father. The video of President Eisenhower recieving Mohini the white tiger at the White House in 1960 is also in the archive, and there is another picture, which is not a postcard, of Elizabeth C. Reed, the zoo director's wife, holding Moni when he was a tiny cub. All of his four littermates, which included two white males and two orange females, were crushed by the mother. He was lucky. There are also pictures of gorillas in the archive including the baby who was the first male gorilla born in the Western Hemisphere and the 4th gorilla born in captivity after Goma and Jambo at Basel Zoo in switzerland. I believe that the National Zoo's first baby gorilla contracted polio, but was successfully treated. There are drawings of him by George Schaller in The Year of the Gorilla. His name starts with a "T", but I forget what it is. Take care. Sincerely Paul
PS: I forgot to mention that a tortoise just died at the National Zoo who had lived there since 1956 and was at least 30 when he or she arrived. Sincerely Paul
Wade: I was just looking at the website of the Smithsonian Institution Archives and I typed in "white tiger cubs born". A couple of things came up. There is a vintage postcard from 1964 featuring three tiger cubs, including one which was white and is billed as the first white tiger cub born outside of India. Maybe you could post the image. There are two orange cubs who were the white cub's littermates with him on the card. The card doesn't say this, but the orange cubs were a female named Ramani and a male named Ramana, and the white cub was a male named Rajkumar, although the keeper had previously named him Charlie. I believe that Rajkumar and Ramani died of feline distemper despite having been vaccinated. There is also a postcard featuring Moni the white tiger cub born at the National Zoo in 1970. You previously posted a picture of him on your blog from Smithsonian magazine. He died of a neurological disorder at about a year old. The orange male cub who appears on the 1964 postcard, Ramana, was Moni's father. The video of President Eisenhower recieving Mohini the white tiger at the White House in 1960 is also in the archive, and there is another picture, which is not a postcard, of Elizabeth C. Reed, the zoo director's wife, holding Moni when he was a tiny cub. All of his four littermates, which included two white males and two orange females, were crushed by the mother. He was lucky. There are also pictures of gorillas in the archive including the baby who was the first male gorilla born in the Western Hemisphere and the 4th gorilla born in captivity after Goma and Jambo at Basel Zoo in switzerland. I believe that the National Zoo's first baby gorilla contracted polio, but was successfully treated. There are drawings of him by George Schaller in The Year of the Gorilla. His name starts with a "T", but I forget what it is. Take care. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeletePS: I forgot to mention that a tortoise just died at the National Zoo who had lived there since 1956 and was at least 30 when he or she arrived. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these amazing clips, these cats are truly grace in motion.
ReplyDelete