Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Bronx Zoo #4


Bronx Zoo Elephant House.11, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.


For Richard Reynolds...Thank you for the additional information on the Bronx Zoo's Elephant House. Here is a "vintage" picture of a hippo being fed at the Bronx Zoo. The date of the picture is 1947. Could this be the "Peter the Great" that you spoke of?

Posted by Buckles at 8/15/2007 05:53:00 AM

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds answers Henry Penndorf - - -

Yes, that is indeed “Peter the Great” or “Pete” for short. Pete was born in the Central Park zoo on July 13, 1903 and was transferred to the Bronx zoo on July 14, 1906. He was the offspring of America’s first pair of truly prolific hippos, Caliph and Mrs. Murphy. They produced 10 calves at Central Park of which 7 survived. One of them was Fatima, sold to Ringling in 1897 and long a feature of its menagerie. She died in 1926.

You say this photo is 1947. However, Pete looks rather wasted in this picture. Note how thin he is and that his backbone protrudes noticeably. I have another photo of him from 1947 and he looks much better in it. I’d say this picture is closer to the time of his death which occurred at the Bronx on February 1, 1953. When he went to hippo heaven he had been the only common or Nile hippo the Bronx had ever had. Though male hippos can be very dangerous animals, Pete was always most docile. There are many photos of him in his yard with his keeper.

It was not until after Pete was gone that the Bronx converted the outdoor pens on the eastern side to the half-moats like on the opposite half of the building.

Note too how the visitors were right up to the bars of Pete’s pen, some holding onto them. The Bronx did not have a safety fence to keep people away from the bars or, for that matter, from the walls of the half moats. You may recall my saying that in 1947 the black rhino put his chin on the wall and I was able to scratch his horn.

One could also get right up to the bars of the outdoor pens along the eastern side of the old antelope house. Someone with close knowledge of the place (either Marvin Jones or Mammal Curator Joe Davis) told me about an act of outrageous delinquency at the bars of the antelope house. A gerenuk or giraffe necked gazelle was enticed up to the fence by a teenager. When the animal was close enough the lad reached through and grabbed the gerenuk by its ears and pulled its tiny head and long skinny neck through the bars. The animal survived but it is a wonder it did not die of shock.

21 August, 2007 14:33

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