8 - Miss Eva, the hippo, made a leisurely walk around the tent as one of the acts in the show. She was housed in one of the two bannerline/cage trucks. A large chimp occupied the other cage in the side show. |
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Cristiani-Wallace, 13 Aug 1962 #8
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Eva was the hippo that the Cristiani show bought for the 1959 season. In September 1966 she was delivered to Busch Gardens, Tampa. I do not know if she is still there, though common hippo longevity has seen a number of them reach and exceed 50 years in captivity.
On May 1, 1967 Bob Dietch told me that five days after Eva landed at Busch, he delivered RBBB’s Lady there. She had been born at the Central Park zoo and was sold to RBBB after it quit exhibiting its menagerie except at Madison Square Garden. Lady was a “Garden only” circus hippo. Dietch kept her at his place in between Garden dates save when he placed her at Allentown’s Dorney Park for the summer seasons.
RBBB brass seem to have thought it important to keep exhibiting a menagerie at the all important Garden date so that New Yorkers would not consider the show to have been diminished.
Eva the hippo is still at Busch Gardens and doing well. I have had the privilege of caring for her for several years now. We are guessing 1959, but do you happen to know what year Eva was born?
According to a zoological report
average life span is 40 to 50 so
she is getting up there at 55+
I was told that Lotus reached 52
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