ELEPHANT STORIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 165, 15 July 1938, Page 4

ELEPHANT STORIES

A TRAINER'S BUDGET.

fVIANY LOYAL FRIENDS.

ONE WAS A CIRCUS BOUNCER. (By JAMES E. PATTERSON.) KANSAS CITY, June 21. After more than 30 years with them, Clark, now director of the zoo in Swope Park here, still* is learning about bulls (the circus idiom for elephants either male or female) from the animals themselves. He sp'eiake of elephants he has known with the wealth of anecdote with which one recalls old friends. The zbb "director will tell you that the popular conception of the animals as being merely big brutes with painfully long memories is far from the truth. And he laughs at the old yarn of the lad who fed one of the jungle giants a plug of tobacco.

"That story ~ie the bunk," Clark declared. "Of course, elephants forget, and the fact in many elephants like tobacco." The veteran trainer believes elephants remember only what has been associated closely with pain or pleasure. • "Take Temple there," Clark said, aiming his t-igar at the smaller of the two zoo elephants,.. "She has slept on her feet for yeare. Why? Well, one time she caught her foot in that steel fence in lying down. It gave her a mighty bad scare." '

ElephanU once under Clark's care remembered him with fondness years later when he saw them again. They ehowed their pleasure, by little squeaks of 'delight and; by touching him with their trunks, -in thie case, however, it was a reunion.''of .old friends and not casual acquaintances'.' ■ v> ■

Understood Human Frailty Clark remembers a keen-witted elephant—a male named Nero— who even possessed a tolerant understanding of human frailty. With the zoo superintendent alcohol 4 9 now taboo. But in hie old days under the big top, he sometimes fortified himself on raw, rainy nights witli a bottle of "medicinal" rum.

"Nfero knew the signs all right," he laughed as he recalled thoee times. "If I. was weaving a little too much, he'd wrap his trunk around my shoulders to steadynnite t I guees sometimee it was more, like being carried than helped along. I didn't worry. Nero was a real friend."

. There is many a bull with a strong sense of loyalty to its trainer. Cheerful Gardner had such an elephant on the Hageribeck-Wallace circus. If either man or beast attempted to attack him this jungle giant would pull up its stakes and charge in to the rescue. Few persona ever considered bothering Cheerful. Certain bulls are really one-man elephants. They take a liking for some trainer and no one else can do anything with them. An elephant may become so strongly attached to a keeper that if he leaves or. is discharged the animal will degenerate into an "outlaw" or unmanageable animal. Old Alice of the Sells-Floto circus was a one-man elephant, Clark related. Dutch Snyder was the only trainer who could get along with her. When SellsFloto sold Alice, to the zoo in Salt Lake City, Dutch went along too. For several yea re both the ,; man and the animal enjoyed the quiet simple life of the ZOO; .Then Dutch was discharged. He went into the zoo house and patted Alice on the trunk. She must have suspected something was wrong. Her little squeals of pleasure when Dutch petted her were miseing. Then she saw him pack a, grip *nd leave without looking back.

Came Back Together. I -Tft* first night after' Dutch' had left AHc|- was restless*. But it was not until riorajjiig, When ...a strange keeper came to Bring her food 'that she 'became greatly alarmed. That night she broke loose, heading for "the roughly wooded hills. -

Then.it was the «oo management that became,alarmed. Then sent out a rush call to/.return. He hurried back when he 'learned what had hap T pened, stopped onty long enough to be' shown the direction Alice had taken, and followed in pursuit.

t> The next day the two returned to the jlttfc Both showed. something' of. ,th« :»#jfclnK'df; : their experience, «i» Alice followed at her master's heele in the manjiwrvijf-* faithful dog, .but; trainer and elephant were pretty eure they would not be separated again. '

Clark believes the elephant has a keen sense of smell and hearing, but pitifully poor eyeaight. The position of the eyee at the sides of the huge head limits the range of vision so it cannot see directly in front, and little, if at all, to, the rear. The elephant's inadequate-vision, however; is" more than Compensated bv a sixth sense, an- unganny ability in judging distance and •trength :

rfodee, the Shirker. . r There was the mischievous Modoc, a powerful brute with a sly sense of humour. When she was led to the rear °* tne show wagons mired in the mud, she would place her snout against the vehicle, and appear to shove with »11 her. might. Yet, if th* -wagon did not move, ;thervtrainer probably 'would find _ Modoa - had been performing a routine of muscular contortions without her trunk .tctually touching the wagon. Her sen wgg£ distance was such that only by side,would the trainer discover a shin'band of light between the head and the rear of the wagon. : : ,

Daisy, another circus elephant, had a somewhat similar ability. When she was young, a ring tub had toppled over with Never afterward,,,would she allow iferSweight to settle of the brightly painted elephant tiibS. When hegpJpSb reached the point she was supposed/to sit erect on the tub, Daisy wotfloMift her bddy in the proper position, but hold herself a bare inch or so above the treacherous seat. As for thaD elephant's sense of the strength of aSetructure the zoo director recalled a time he had led a herd to m narrow bridge. The first bull stopped and put a cautious foot upon the wood and steel span. The experiment must have proved alarming, because none of the herd would cross the bridge. While he was seeking.some means of forcing his charges across, a circus baggage wagon approached and the trainer drew the elephants aside for the'vehicle to pass. When the wagon reached the centre of the bridge, the structure collapsed. An Elephant "Bouncer."

Clark is of the opinion, that a trainer with sufficient patience and understanding can teach a bull to perform almost any type of service. The old Howes Great London eireos lad an elephant trained as a sort of colossal "bouncer." The circus was iwhat was known in former years as a

"grift show," meaning the troupe carried gamblers who operated so-called gamee of chance. Sometimes a townsman w<l6 picked too clean or perceived the swindle, and then there was trouble, with the circus men rallying on one side and the local citizens on the other. Such "Hey Rubes!" occurred frequently on the grift shows.

The Howo.s show met this situation by perfecting its own "Hey Rube ,, technique, and employing, as did Hannibal some eenturiefl previously, an elephant in its battle line. When a fiprht eeemed imminent, the big top men tied handkerchiefs around their necks' so they would not strike a friend in the ensuing- melee. Then the circus manager yelled for the trainer to bring out the fighting elephant, armed with a 10ft sidepole clutched in its trunk. When the skirmish began, the bull would wade into the mass of struggling men, picking out the townsmen for ite blowe like a chicken pecking corn from gravel. The showmen never lost a battle.— N.A.N.A.