LinWang (From Richard Reynolds)

LinWang, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. ___________________________ From a letter by RJRIII to British Zoologist Clin Keeling - - - 4 Sept 2004 Burmese male elephant Lin Wang. - - -Neither Ken Kawata nor I believe Taipei Zoo’s Lin Wang elephant was anything like 86 years old at time of death on 25 February 2003. I enclose a photo taken of him on 18 Oct 2002 (four months before he died). Kawata said that an elephant that old should show signs of very advanced years such as sunken temples, frayed ears, and ribs showing. I agree. The Taipei folks claimed he was born “around 1918” - -only a guess on their part. I think it was more like the early 1930s. That would have made him around 70 at death - - nevertheless, very impressive. I have videotape of him from late in his life, and he is very youthful looking for what must have been a very advanced age. This much we know - -a lot of it from Jane Wang in “The Taciturn Pachyderm - -Linwang the Elephant Veteran” (translated by Brent Heinrich). Lin Wang was with a group of logging elephants in the forests of Northern Burma when World War II came to that land. The Imperial Japanese Army commandeered him (and other elephants) during their April 1942 offensive, which led to their capturing Lashio and the severing of the Burma Road. It linked Lahsio with Kunming (Yunnan Province) China. With the entire Chinese coast under Japanese control, the Burma Road was the only route by which those at War with Japan could supply China with critical food supplies and war materials. As you know we then turned to air, flying the Himalayan hump, but that was hazardous at best and not all that effective. Lin Wang went to work as a pack animal for the Japanese. According to author Wang (see above) it was in 1943 when the Chinese India Corps got hold of him. They had been training in India with the objective of retaking Burma. (Given what I know about operations and engagements in that theater of the war, it must have been very late in 1943 or more likely well into 1944). The “capture “of Lin Wang happened near Namhkam Burma, north of Lashio. The Chinese sent out a scouting party to find some work elephants. Disguised as Burmese, they came upon Lin Wang and 12 other pack elephants in a thick bamboo grove. Burmese elephant drivers working for the Japanese were tending them - -no doubt under pain of death. One of the Chinese, an intelligence officer who could speak Burmese, pretended to be acting on orders for the Japanese. He directed the mahouts to march the elephants, but in a direction toward the Chinese lines. The mahouts figured out what was happening and fled. The Chinese then took the elephants and put them to work hauling ammunition and other supplies. On 7 March 1945 the Chinese Army retook Lashio. The next month, with the Burma Road once more in Allied hands, the Chinese India Corps used it to march Lin Wang and his pachyderm mates from Lashio into China. In 1947 Lin Wang was taken to Formosa (Taiwan). In 1954 he took up residence in the Taipei zoo. Enclosed is another photo of Lin Wang. It shows him with Chinese Commander-in-Chief Sun Li-jen and US Senator Warren Knowland (California). This was after Word War II. I estimate it was taken around 1947. As you see, the elephant is a young tusker. I am certainly no elephant morphologist. I’ve just seen a lot of them, and in my opinion the elephant with Senator Knowland is not more than about 15 years old. He looks to be about the same age as the Indian circus tusker Tommy (later the celebrated King Tusk), when I photographed him in 1958. We know Tommy was born around 1944 or 1945, and therefore he was about 13 or 14 in 1958. He was working in harness, pulling up the tent etc. Based on the circa 1947 photo I would put Lin Wang’s birth in about 1932. That would have made him around 10 when the Japanese took him in 1942, perhaps too young to be doing heavy logging work. Maybe Lin Wang was tagging along with other work elephants, doing light pack work and learning the trade as it were, when he fell into enemy hands. Whatever, I would put him at or just over 70 when he died. In my opinion that is a more acceptable Asian elephant longevity than the 86 assigned by the Taipei zoo. Another possibility has occurred to me. It borders on blasphemy, namely, that there were two elephants named Lin Wang, one the successor of the other, with the “86-year” longevity achieved by adding the two together. Giving successor animals the same names as earlier ones has happened many times. That has been true for circus animals (particularly Ringling) and one needs to be most careful not to confuse the animals. Whatever, debunking the 86 age assigned by the Taiwanese would cause much loss of face. Richard Reynolds