From Richard Reynolds

!cid_X_MA1_1343152807@aol, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. Here is another photo of the monster Samson with Scott Riddle at the Los Angeles zoo. Scott has said that Samson was the largest elephant he has ever seen. My information says that Samson stood 10'-10" at the shoulder. That makes him the size of Jumbo. Barnum would never allow his great elephant to be accurately measured, but all evidence says that he was a couple of inches short of 11.' William Blackburne was on Barnum's show when Jumbo was there, He said that the inside of his special rail car measured exactly 11' from floor to ceiling, and there was always room for a man's hand between the top of his shoulder and the ceiling. Naturalist William Hornaday, later Bronx zoo director, hired a pole vaulter to measure Jumbo surreptitiously by using his pole. That measurement came up with 10' - 9" Here is what my files show about the largest elephants that have been measured - -all of them Africans. As far as I know, the largest African so far measured was not a captive animal. He was the gigantic bull shot in Angola in 1955 by the Hungarian big game hunter J. J. Fénykovi. This huge elephant is mounted and stands in the rotunda of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. According to the information on the plaque, the monster stood 13’-2” and weighed 16,000 pounds. However, the late elephant expert Haufellner (1999) gave him only 12’-6.” - - wow! Next to that I would put Tembo at Copenhagen zoo (1936-1970). He weighed 6,250 kilograms (14,500 pounds). I have two height measurements for him. The zoo said 3.70 meters (12’-6”) but Haufellner (1999) said 3.35 meters (10’- 10”). He had to be euthanized because he was about to smash his way out of his house. Yossi, of the Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan zoo, Israel stands some 11’-6.” Veteran elephant keeper Alan Roocraft said he is the largest elephant he has ever seen. In order to get to his stall he must pass beneath a heavy metal railing which is 3.50 meters (11’ 5.7”) off the ground and Yossi must lower his shoulders to pass below it. So, he must be close to 11’-6.” Roocraft said another bull that is pushing the height limits is a tuskless African male, Calimerio, at Beekse Bergen Safari Park in Holland. He stands 11’-1.9” - - was at Basel Zoo before Beekse B. and before that at Rome Zoo. African male Angus at Mike Hackenberger's Bowmanville zoo near Toronto, Canada was another monster. Hackenberger told me in 2002 in Toronto (CHS convention) that Angus stood 11’-1” and weighed 16,500 pounds. Angus died on January 6, 2006. Haufellner (1999) gave the heights of two additional huge ones - - Vauka at the automaker Georg von Opel’s zoo in Kronberg, Germany measured 11’-1.85” as did Hannover zoo’s Tembo. Diamond - -The African acquired by RBBB in 1955 and given by the show to Knoxville zoo in 1963. I saw him in 1979, and at that time he was the largest elephant I have ever seen. His indoor pen was a massively constructed enclosure of steel and concrete. It was maybe 12 feet high and 15 feet wide. Running around it was a service passage where keepers could reach him at various levels on a no-contact basis. The keepers took me into this service passage. I recall looking way upward and seeing his huge eye looking down on me. I asked his keepers if they had ever accurately measured his height. The said no but wanted to do so. Best they could do they said was by watching the place on the door leading to his yard when the top of his back passed through. From that they felt he was at least 11 ft. tall. Diamond died in Knoxville on September 10, 1980. I do not think they ever did measure his height scientifically while he was living. Diamond is notable for siring two African calves born in 1978, the first ones bred and born alive in USA.