Buckles Blog: National Geographic #13

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Scan13281, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Richard Reynolds said...: As Khartoum grew to nearly Jumbo’s size, his height was often measured to see if he could equal or exceed that of Jumbo. His last such measurement took place on January 9, 1930, and he topped out at 10 ft – 8 in.

According to animal keeper William Blackburne, the interior of Jumbo’s special rail car was an even 11ft. from the floor to the ceiling. Blackburne said that there was room for the width of a man’s hand between the top of the big guy’s back and the ceiling of the car. So he was just short of 11 ft. Blackburne would know because he was on Barnum & London with Jumbo. Later, he was the first animal keeper/director at the National Zoo.

Khartoum arrived at the Bronx zoo on June 25, 1907 as a calf of an estimated 4 years. He died there on October 31, 1931.

In more recent times there have been any number of huge African males in captivity that equaled or exceeded Jumbo in height.

For example, the monster male Yossi in Ramat Gan zoo, Israel, has been measured at 12 ft-1 in.; 30 November, 2010 18:27

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