Tuesday, July 03, 2007

From Buckles


Scan10018, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Al G. Kelly & Miller Bros. Circus 1962 "Nicodemus"

G'day Buckles,
Besides various Circus performers using White and Black rhinos in acts over
the years, there was one U.S. Circus that had an even rarer rhino!

Between October of 1974 and May 1977, I was driving down to the National Zoo
in Washington D.C. two to three times a year, to spend time with the various
Keepers and to learn and work with Giant Pandas. Just something to do on a
four day weekend (550 miles away)! On one of my visits, a friend of mine
arranged for me to visit the Smithsonian Skin collection that was housed in
a large factory. After going through a security check, I was shown through
the rows upon rows of cabinets of various mammal species. I asked to check
the rhino section and while checking out the various skins, I came across
one that the label listed it as a Northern White Rhino from a circus in the
late 1870-80's in the Southern U.S.. I turned to the person who was so nice
to show me around and told her that the skin was definitely labelled wrong
and it was not a Northern White Rhino. I explained that a Northern White
Rhino wouldn't have two very short almost nubby horns and be covered by hair
and it was actually a Sumatran Rhino. This was something that even someone
who was visually impaired could have figured out! Somewhere in my library, I
remember reading about a circus in the Southern U.S. that had a Sumatran
Rhino. Still can't believe that I corrected the Smithsonian!! I also was
able to hold a Quagga skin! Any idea what show this animal was on? I'm sure
it was most likely part of their menagerie.

Hundreds of years ago in India, not only were Elephants covered in armour
and ridden into battle, Indian rhinos had spikes attached to their shoulders
and hips and were ridden by four or five soldiers! Back in I believe the
late '60's, early '70's the Miami Zoo received a pair of Indian rhinos from
Nepal. This pair was trained to pull a wagon around the zoo, there is a
postcard of it, but unfortunately I don't have a copy in my collection.

Happy Days
Wayne

Elaine L. Hales & Wayne A. Jackson
lfantman@sympatico.ca

Posted by Buckles at 7/03/2007 12:34:00 PM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure this is Herb Walters' old rhino, which he sold to Dorey when his working capital got low.

I'm trying to remember if this was the pit show that Ross and Margaret McKay worked- or if that was a big snake show?

03 July, 2007 13:45
Anonymous said...

This blog gets better and better. If you chose to pay close attention and do a little follow up reading, you could pick up college credits in any zoology course. Your new scanner is doing a great job, so are your contributors. cc

03 July, 2007 14:31
Anonymous said...

Never saw a rhino on Herb Walters' Famous Cole (1960s) but clearly remember the McKay's semi-mounted pit show featured a large python.

03 July, 2007 22:03
Anonymous said...

Not everyone can possibly know what a Quagga is.... please, what is a Quagga?? cc

04 July, 2007 00:22
Anonymous said...

Happy 4th of July!
Can't believe I'm up before you. But today, my wife of eleven years will be sworn in as an American citizen in a ceremony @ Disney World, and we have to be there by 6am! God bless America!

Bruce the Clown

04 July, 2007 04:07
Anonymous said...

Paul:

The rhino must have been sold to
D R before you saw Famous Cole;

I have sent Buckles a picture of some of our advertising for the rhino.

Watch this blog.

04 July, 2007 09:58
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds adds - -

NICODEMUS

First off, that is a fine photo of Nicodemus, the Kelly-Miller African black rhino. He was one of two acquired by Hugo, OK based shows in 1955. One went on Kelly Miller but it died before the season was out. The other (Nicodemus) went first to the George W. Cole show, then Famous Cole (Herb Walters), and then to Kelly Miller in 1960. With K-M floundering, rhino Nicodemus and the hippo, Miss Oklahoma, were sold to the Bell Bros. show in Mexico. This was in either late 1964 or the early months of 1965.

SUMATRAN RHINO SKIN IN THE COLLECTION OF SMITHSONIAN'S NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.

It boggles my mind to think that any mammalogist worth a quarter could mistake a Sumatran skin for that of a Northern White rhino. For starters, the latter is some 2 to 3 times larger (whites go 4,000 to 6,000 lbs vs. Sumatran at 1,700). Also, the hairy skin of the Sumatran, unique among rhinos, should have been a dead giveaway.

There was never a living white rhino in USA until 1956 when the celebrated pair, Bill and Lucy, arrived at the National Zoo, Washington, from the Sudan. They were northern white rhinos and were named for Zoo director Bill Mann ( a big circus fan) and his wife, Lucy. Both were shipped to the San Diego Wild Animal Park in 1972 where they both died later in that decade. The Northern White rhino (c .s. cottoni) is one of three rhino races closest to extermination in its native range – too much war and poaching in Sudan and Congo (nee Zarie).The other two are the Vietnamese Javan rhino and the Cameroon black rhino.

As information there was never a white rhino of either race in captivity anywhere in the world until 1946 when an orphaned calf of the southern race (c. s .simum) was sent to the Pretoria, SA zoo. Nowadays southern white rhinos are almost as common in captivity as giraffes. They are the ones that have most frequently in circus rings since the 1960s.

WHICH CIRCUS SUMATRAN WAS IT?

Because of careless and exaggerated advertising by 19th century showmen, specific rhino identification is often difficult. Nevertheless we believe some 6 to 8 different Sumatran rhinos were with American circuses between 1872 and 1908. If the Smithsonian’s date of acquisition of the skin is accurate i.e., obtained in the late 1870s -1880s, a possibility would be the Sumatran that Barnum loaned to Pardon A. Older for a southern tour in the winter of 1872. This rhino wound up with Older and & Chandler in Shreveport, LA where the Sumatran rhino was sold at an auction of that show in Sept. 1873. [It went belly up because of a Yellow Fever epidemic.] The rhino was advertised as a Sumatran. It (or we think it was the same animal) turned up on Steven’s & Begun’s Great Roman Hippodrome and World’s Congress of Trained Animals in 1874. It announced plans for a southern tour that included Texas and Arkansas.

There were also Sumatran rhinos with John Robinson in the 1880s and with Barnum & London in 1886. B&L made its first tour of the Deep South that year. That spring southern railroads converted to standard gauge, 4’-8.5,” from the previous 5’ gauge. That allowed the Barnum show trains to enter the south. They were outfitted with standard gauge trucks (wheel assemblies) and the show had not previously wanted to bother with swapping out the bogies in the big transfer yards where the two gauges met (other shows did so). Perhaps the Sumatran rhino died in the South on that ’86 B&L tour and was sent to Smithsonian.

Sumatran rhinos have been notoriously difficult to keep. James A. Bailey was once quoted to that effect. The main reason is that they are browsers. They like only certain types of fresh leaves, not hay, a fact likely unappreciated in the animal husbandry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Even under modern care and dietary expertise, Sumatrans have proved difficult. - -just look at the problems encountered by zoos in keeping the ones brought in during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Cincinnati finally found the dietary key - -ficus.


SKIN COLLECTION, SMITHSONIAN'S NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

I too have been fortunate to visit the skins collection at the Natural History Museum. This was around 1965. At the time I was doing research about giant pandas. A curator took me to an off- exhibit room in the main museum building where there were rows and rows of cabinets with big drawers, inside which were animal skins. There must have been two or three full of giant panda skins. They had been collected in Sichuan (nee Szechwan) province of China in the 1920s and early 1930s. It was a thrill to pick up one of them. At the time there was not a living giant panda in USA. The last previous one was the ornery male Mei-Lan. He had died at Brookfield zoo in 1953. He once bit off a keeper’s hand - -so much for the sweet and cuddly.

INDIAN RHINO DOMESTICATION

Somewhere I have a photo of that young Nepalese Indian at Miami zoo pulling the small cart. There are many accounts of this species of rhino being used by man, some of them sounding like inventions from The Arabian Nights.

C. A. W Guggisberg in his splendid S.O.S. Rhino (1966) wrote (per an account from a Colonel Pollock) that an Indian washer man in Gowhatty had one that was so tame it placidly carried the washing around the town on its back. Because Indian rhinos occurred in a land with a sophisticated culture, close to trade centers, it was rather easy to get them and send them to Europe and America in the early 19th century. Contrast that with the almost wholly unexplored Sub-Saharan Africa of that time. Result - -no African rhinos until way later.

In time the pressure of expanding agriculture and incessant hunting and poaching almost ended the Indian rhino. Fortunately conservation efforts took hold in Nepal and Assam (where they live in the largest numbers) so that the species seems rather safe for the moment. Though it was the commonest species in America in the 19th century, there has not been an Indian rhino on an American circus since Old Bill croaked at Ft. Worth on September 28, 1926 with RBBB. From 1918 to 1923 he was the only Indian rhino in America.

04 July, 2007 18:46
Anonymous said...

Roman Schmidt had a female Black Rhino that did an act with his elephant Birka. I believe her name was Kenya.She was very interesting during loading and unloading.
Rex Williams also had a rhino for a while. Maybe someone can fill us in a bit on that animal ?

05 July, 2007 18:36
SI Intern said...

SI Intern -

Hello! I don't know if anyone will ever check back on this article, but I'm interning at the Smithsonian and doing some research on our Asian rhinos. The skin referenced in the post is likely that of a female Sumatran rhino from the Adam Forepaugh and Sells Bros. circus, circa 1900! It was noted in the original catalog entry as coming from Africa and listed as 'Rhinoceros bicornis'. These were corrected at some later point (perhaps after your visit, Wayne!) to Borneo and 'Didermoceros sumatrensis', respectively.

Another piece of interesting history is, as far as I've been able to piece together, this is the same female Sumatran rhino that the Adam Forepaugh circus deposited at the National Zoo (also a part of the Smithsonian) from 1893-1896. Apparently she traveled for four more years after her departure from D.C. in 1896, only to to die when the circus came back through!

I hope this was helpful. :)

03 October, 2012 13:42

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