Mammoth’s Legs Too Short

Northern Advocate, 30 August 1938, Page 10

Mammoth’s Legs Too Short

Three generations of Canterbury children have gazed with awe at the Canterbury MuseunVs elephant, only to be told at this late hour that he is a dwarf, prematurely stunted in growth. When the matter was referred to Mr R. A. Falla, curator, recently, the contention that the venerable and respected specimen was not true to form was confirmed. Mr Falla assessed the shortage of leg as about a foot apiece all round. Theories for the shrinkage are many and varied. Most persistent is a sugggestion that, when the hide of the elephant arrived in Christchurch in the 1870’s, the person responsible for mounting it found that the irons made to support the legs were a foot or so short. Rather than order new irons, he cheerfully lopped a foot off each leg. Result, present deformity. Mr Falla is not prepared to support this story. He inclines to the theory that the hide was allowed to shrink. Historical Animal.

Thoughts of this particular elephant have brought back to the older residents tales of his earl}’- days, when he was considered to be one of the worst treated elephants in history. In 1869 he and .a colleague roamed the Jardin des Plantes in Paris as favourite pets of the kindly Parisians. They (the elephants) were christened Castor and Pollux. - Came the Franco-Prussian War, bringing in its wake the siege of Paris. Food became short and the kindly animal-love of the Parisians gave way to a heartless greed for anything in the meat line. So the butcher arrived and Castor and Pollux gave their lives proudly for their country of adoption. Elephant meat, it is recorded in history, reached prices payable only by “les aristos,” the trunk being a particular delicacy.

Now. to add to Castor's unfortunate historical episode has come news of his short-comings in the logs. Perhaps time will reveal other faults with this respected citizen of the Plains’ City.