1920's Ringling-Barnum #3

Scan13269, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. At the extreme right one of the elephants is wearing a martingale. This would be "Mighty" from the B&B herd. My dad told me that at this point the show carried five males "John", "Sammy" and "Rio" from Ringling and "Albert" and "Mighty" from Barnum & Bailey, the latter was the only one with ivory. I once asked Hugo Schmitt what the chances were of having a herd with five males and only one with tusks and he said, "I don't think so!" I read that tuskless males in jungle are especially aggressive since they are at a handicap competing for females.