Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Zoo Wuppertal #1 (From Filipe von Gilsa)


Tika1, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Mister Woodcock,

on friday the 13th we had our third elephant birth at the Wuppertal Zoo.
It's a female and we called her "Tika".
She was only 75 kilograms heavy but is in very good conditions.
Enclosed some photos.
About the previous photos you put in your blog:
The bull is Siporex who was captive born in Denmark and died some years ago.
Calvin who was trained by Charlie Gray peplaced him.
The cow who is doing the show is from Borneo.
Wolfgang Nehring's elephant is called Yeetho and she is from Burma.
She was painted because Wolfgang and her attend a Thai-party.
Let me know if you need more information.
Thank you very much for the excellent work on your blog

Filipe

Posted by Buckles at 7/17/2007 08:54:00 AM

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sure is a little one I beleive that crosses over to be around 150 pounds. The asian elephant on the Gatti show named Tika scaled in at 125 pounds if I remember correctly what I was told upon her arrival into the U.S. when she was a punk that would be around 60 or so kilogram. Never the less It is a real neat thing to see a photo of such a small one

17 July, 2007 22:56
Anonymous said...

Jimmy, the first and only baby elephant I ever saw was the one that Buckey Steele had born in 77 or 78, just before the Texas Dates. We brought him into Ft. Worth, I believe. Do you know, or remember what he weighted? Wade

18 July, 2007 17:32
Anonymous said...

Wade,coincidently someone asked about
that punk this year in Pittsburgh while we were showing there. I had about forgotten about him. I don't recall what it weighed but I believe it was the first new born I had seen and the smallest. Buckey kept him corraled in some bales of hay. I believe it would have weighed between the two Tikas. Question to Mr Woodcock; What would be the smallest and the not so smallest scaled in at that you know of ??

18 July, 2007 22:30
Bob Cline said...

Wade and Jimmy,
You were there. I'm just trying to learn more. I have a baby being born and died on Feb. 1, 1978. and a little Male born on Oct 22, 1981 to Whimpy that they named Shoney. He lived about 6 months. If there was another birth, I don't have it in my records and would appreciate any information you guys could muster up. I know Buke was the Sire for everything back then.
Thanks,
Bob

19 July, 2007 07:13
Buckles said...

They are cute and all that but I don't know nothin' about birthin' babies.
In 1972 when enroute from Florida to join the Miller-Johnson Circus in California, we layed over at Gee Gee's place in Dallas for a few days.
Smokey dropped by one day and mentioned that he had saved some money and wanted to buy a baby elephant. I contacted Chet Juszyk and a deal was made after which Smokey joined our little caravan and off we went heading westward into the settinmg sun.
After a few weeks with the show Smokey got a call from Chet saying the elephant had arrived. Off to the airport he and Kari went in his little Volkswagon van.
Later in the day when they returned I asked, "Didn't it come in?" and he replied, "She's in the back seat!" I doubt she was a month old.
Oddly enough she was also named "Tika"
As it turned out, the was the last of the $3,500 elephants.

19 July, 2007 07:35
Anonymous said...

Bob, Feb. 1st may be the right date of the birth. It coincides with the date in Ft. Worth. I was laid off at Buckeys place for two weeks. A sizeable portion of his property was hot fenced off around a pond, and Buckey suggested that I put my five elephant's in with his, while he and I ran to the hardware store. I told him Tess was a fighter, (she had conceived, the elephant and girl in the whale tank trick earlier in the year. Buckey assured me Bukealou would square any beefs. When we returned an hour later, Barbara Tata was swinging the front gate shut, calling Buckey some creative names. Bombay and Delhi were eating Barbara's new bushes and scratching on the house. Buke was trying to climb into the hayloft to get away from Tess, and Joyce and Billie had her back incase any body tried to intervene. Whimpy was in the far corner of the property, thinking this might be a good time to give birth. Chang was wondering what was wrong with Whimpy, and Zola was trying to hide behind the haystack. A week later, Buckey and I lifted the little guy up into the crumb box over the fifth wheel, and headed into Ft. Worth. Sorry if this poste has gotten long, but I miss the "good old day's", so very much. Wade Burck

19 July, 2007 08:41
Anonymous said...

To Mr.Cline
Discussed with Wade a bit on the subject of Mr.( as Tibor Alexander would say, Buckey the Steele's ) baby elephants. Apparently neither one died on the date of birth to our recollection. Also the Texas dates Wade refers to would have been in Oct/Nov. The punk I am referring to would have been the second one however I believe your dates might be off a bit. I jumped the broom in 1980 and it would have been prior to that on the birth of the second one. Also the one I am talking about did a bit on a T.V. soap opera in N.Y. book thru Tibor. Sorry but the exact weights and dates on that are fuzzy ??
I do recall hearing of the elephant roundup of which Wade mentioned.

20 July, 2007 12:17
Anonymous said...

A well told story, Wade

20 July, 2007 16:16
Bob Cline said...

Thanks for the efforts guys. I have to admit though, I never knew Wade worked the Cuneo elephants so you learn something new all the time. As Buckles has told me many times, this elephant record keeping thing is a piece in the works. My line is, it will never be done.
Thanks again,
Bob

20 July, 2007 16:26
Anonymous said...

Bob, FYI Originally John's three babies were worked as single's. Herta worked Siam in the end ring, I worked Tina in the other end, and of course, John worked Ronnie in the center. I presented them as a 3 act at Marineland, and on any dates that wanted 2 elephant acts. An incredible act trained by Mac MacDonald, with a few liberty horse behavi (tricks, sorry Col.), three's, change lead's, etc. I presented a riding act with Joyce and a lion and tiger, for 3 years. When John's father died in 1977, I started working the big five act, until 1981, when the tigers were contracted to go on Circus Vargas, and Pee Wee and Joann Pinson were contrated to work the five. My brother picked up Mikey(who later became Tyke) also trained by Mac, and worked with her a while at the farm. She was the cutest little thing. I was drug kicking and screaming back into the elephant dept. in 2003 until Easter of this year, when I loaded Gyp and Nick up for their trip to Calif. It was with a truely heavy heart that I took up the picket line, that we had put down 30 years earlier. Wade Burck

21 July, 2007 08:48
Buckles said...

Mac once told me that "Ronnie" and "Siam" were the two most miserable knot heads he ever worked with.
I often wondered if it was possibly due to his age at the time.
I'm glad to learn that in the end result, he was still the master.

22 July, 2007 13:20
Anonymous said...

Buckles, I don't think it was the Great Mac's age. I was 22 and they were "knot heads". But what an act. Balls, barrels, hand stands on revolving pedestals. Even trunks in the air (you can ask Jimmy, if you don't believe me). I cherish to this day, the week I got to spend on the Texas dates, with Mac and Peggy, and Mac and Toto. I regret that my boy's will never get the chance to be around the like's. Wade Burck

22 July, 2007 14:15
Anonymous said...

I guess we have all trained "knot Heads" as part of a group, but it is something that we did as I can't recall taking an animal back to the store and trading the dumb one for a smart one.

I have had people suggest to me that maybe to get,say and eight horse liberty act that you would buy ten and wind up with the best eight, or that you keep one or two for a spare just in case. That doesn't work because each one has to be trained in a certain place. Sure just the basic run around, change, line up would be an asset, but I have found those extra "dead head" animals are always the first to get sick, get hurt, etc.

I have found that generally any animal can be trained for the basic stuff and then you find one that has a little more smarts or athletic ability to learn and do more. Example; Anna Mae and Opal, or Terrell and Sheba, etc. etc.

When I had the six young elephants for Hoxie Bros. I realized that the male African Hoxie was certainly a nice looking animal and with his already impressive ivory would look great in the lead and I did practice him for that spot, but he just wouldn't step out and Go On. I figured it was my fault and just did not have enough smarts to get that done. Now in reflection I can believe that he just didn't have the smarts and those that worked him after me never got much more out of him that I did.

Now the first morning after the birth of the Brat I was in Rex's barn and he was just a few hours old. I was training for Dickie, just across the yard. He was nice and healthy. I have no idea what he weighed, but would guess over 150. However he started right away to be spoiled by Rex. Rex had an old couch in his barn and we would sit in it and watch Brat. He would leave his mother come up to us and try to climb up on the couch with us. Rex would chase him away with an old fishing rod and he would soon come right back. These was an everyday ocurrence during the couple weeks I was there and its obvious Rex continued on, enjoying it all, hewnce the suitable name Brat.

Two different times with Mills Bros. they imported babies and also the Hanneford bottle babies and all of them appeared to be just born, in fact it seems to me the Brat was bigger.

I go along with the prerequafal [how the hell do you spell this word] things required in training and certainly Col. Woodcock certainly was modest concerning his abilities. But for me just to train without all the other BS thrown in was my thing, but naturally the other parts come into focus.

22 July, 2007 16:39

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