Thursday, July 26, 2007

Bronx Zoo post cards #3


Bronx Zoo - elephant house, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 7/26/2007 07:17:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this building still at the zoo or has it beej replaced?

26 July, 2007 08:03
Anonymous said...

As of last month, it is still at the zoo and used as an information center (with alot of empty space).

The elephant head in the next picture is from the outside of the building and caught my eye as i went by. Now I know its history.

26 July, 2007 15:59
Anonymous said...

Anonymous is correct it is now, sadly, an information center,
occasionally displaying camels,
haven;t seen an elephant in there
in years. In the "good old days"
this building was home to African and Asian elephants, White & Black Rhinocerous, Nile & Pygmy Hippos,
and an occasional Tapir or two ,
and last but far from least, my old
buddy, Bessie, an Asian/Indian
Rhinocerous that is now immortalized in not one, but two larger than life size bronze statues outside the far entrance to the Elephant House.

Paul Gutheil

26 July, 2007 21:54
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says - -

This magnificent zoo building was opened in the fall of 1908. In my opinion it is the most beautiful zoo building ever erected in an American zoo. It was patterned on those seen in European zoos of the time. We’ll never see another like it. It’s too much like a museum!

When I first visited the Bronx zoo on August 14, 1947 the outdoor barred cages were gone from the end that circled that half of the building shown on the left here - -the west end. They were replaced by low walls behind which the ground sloped down to the wall. These were installed in late 1941 or by the spring of 1942 and are called half moats or “ha-has.”

As shown here, the yard with the Asian elephant (Alice?), was occupied on my first visit by a trio of African elephants. They had arrived on October 8, 1946 from the elephant training station at Gangala-na Bodio, Belgian Congo. One was a common bush elephant but the other two were a male and female of the rare forest elephant (Pygmy elephants to Roland Butler). The male was name Zangalima and the female Dourma - -Pinky to the keepers. She is shown in another of Paul Gutheil’s fine photos. That picture also shows the ha-has from the animal side.

Proceeding clockwise around the left or western end of the building the other ha-has had a pygmy hippo, the famous female Indian rhino Bessie, and a male black rhino. While I was standing there looking at him he placed his chin on the top of the wall begging and I scratched his horn - -what thrill. The first time I ever touched a rhino. I was then one month from my 13th birthday.

On the back side of the building beginning at the entrance way on that side and continuing clockwise all the way around to the right or eastern side shown here, all the outdoor pens were surrounded by tall barred fences. My impression is that Bronx wanted to do the whole outside area with ha-has but the coming of the war only allowed them to do the west end described above.

Back to the other side, still moving clockwise, there was a large pen for the famous Nile hippo, Peter the Great. He was Bronx’s only Nile hippo until his death in 1953. Unfortunately on the day of my visit he was inside and the interior of the building was closed off by a chains stretched across the walkways. Drats! But I did catch a glimpse of Pete as he stood inside the doorway leading out to his yard. Oddly there was no outside bathing pool for Pete though the Indian rhino Bessie did have one.

Proceeding along, I think the next outdoor cage had another pygmy hip. [There were no tapirs outside on the day of my ’47 visit though I did see South American, Bairds and Malayans there in 1960 and 1961.] Then around on the right side of the building, as shown in the illustration, were two Asian elephants, Cutie and Dolly, and the old African female bush elephant Sudana [She was at Bronx from 1931 to 1962.]

The last time I was at Bronx, on March 21, 1997, the amiable Jim Doherty, General Curator, took me around. This magnificent old elephant building was then given mostly to information, guest services etc. . However, there were two Asian elephants at the far right or eastern end (as in the photo). At the left or western end was a lone aging Malayan tapir. This enclosure had housed the female Sumatran rhino, Rapunzel, who at the time of my visit was out in Cincinnati on breeding loan.


I was very impressed by the bronze statues of Indian rhino Bessie. She was there a long time, arriving from Nepal on May 24, 1923 via Frank Buck, and dying at the Bronx on January 25, 1962.

It bears mentioning that before this magnificent building was opened, the elephants, rhinos, and hippo Pete were kept in the antelope house with the giraffes etc.

29 July, 2007 17:45
Anonymous said...

As a boy my father would often bring my brother and myself to see Bessie at the zoo and I read "Bring'em Back Alive" many times. I still live in the Bronx and love to visit the ever improving Bronx Zoo on a regular basis.

06 February, 2008 20:12

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