FATE OF JUMBO

Jumbo drew millions of visitors to the London Zoo during the Victoria age. He was a favourite of the Queen’s children.

As much as adored and loved he had a lonely and sad existence.

It is assumed that he was born around 1860 on the border of today’s Ethiopia and Sudan. His name comes from Swahili “jumbe” meaning chief. His mother was killed and he was captured and sold.

An Italian animal dealer bought and sold him to the London Zoo.

His keeper was Matthew Scott, a loner who loved animals started up a deep friendship.

Jumbo was full of diseases when he arrived in London and Scott nursed him back. Scott had no knowledge of feeding and treating elephants and in a round-about-way added suffering with Jumbo’s diet and also gave him whiskey.

Jumbo as quiet he was during the day became violent during the night smashing up several times the timber-cage. Scientists discovered that a bad toothache could have cause him to get into a rage. As everybody knows toothache really worsen during the night.

His monotonous diet of sticky buns as a reward from the children he gave a rides and hay. After his death they found damage to his teeth and an infection. In his stomach they found 300 coins and a police whistle which the elephant picked up and swallowed but it couldn’t have done him any good.

The rides also must have taken their toll on his joints, judging from photos with dozens of people on his back.

It was a great shock when London Zoo sold Jumbo to an American Circus and 100,000 children wrote to Queen Victoria to stop it.

In 1882 the circus Barnum & Bailey paid £2000 for Jumbo and London Zoo had no hesitation to sell and ship him to America. His keeper went with him.

Ringmaster PT Barnum called it “The Greatest Show on Earth” and 20 million people came to see Jumbo. Barnum claimed he was the biggest African elephant.

Jumbo died very young at the age of 24. They can live 70 years in the wild.

He was exercising at a rail yard in St Tomas, Ontario, Canada, when a train hit him. It was reported that his keeper wept uncontrollably as his best friend died. They had to ward off souvenir hunters.

Barnum stated that Jumbo run head first into the train to save his friend, Scott, and a smaller elephant Tom Thumb.

However, it is now discovered that the skeleton shows no fracture on his head. Old photos show scars on his back and it is thought that Jumbo could not run fast enough to get off the truck.

Even in death he was still exploited; Barnum had him stuffed to put him on show.

Although being already a huge animal but according to the expert he was not fully grown at his age of 24.

He was so famous he inspired a Hollywood movie.

TRUMP STOPS BAN ON IMPORT ELEPHANTS AND LIONS TROPHIES

This is a shocking and devastation news that Trump would stop the ban on elephants’ and lions’ trophy. It is not known whether the Congress already agreed to stop the ban. Hopefully they turn Trump down.

Of course, May will follow suit; she already passed a remark weeks ago.

This will put all the hard work of conservationist as wasted. As it is every 28 minutes is an elephant killed which is already feared and seen as danger of extinction. Now, with the ban lifted, it will be nothing but mass killing.

The African countries were putting up a fight for decades to save the animals from extinction because of the Black Market. These animals were already marked on the danger list but with all their 
efforts they increased the numbers.

The poachers latest dirty trick was to put poison in the waterholes avoiding having to shoot them and alert the game's warden.

The only reason, as I see it, is Trump’s two sons already enjoying shooting elephants and lions. They want to bring their trophies home, make money on it, and avoid prosecution.

It does not show any principles to be a President of the USA.

The same goes for May who itches to cancel the ban. Despite the ban UK is the second largest exporter of ivory in the world. That’s all the Tories good for hunting and boozing.

They forget that people voted them in for standing up for them and doing right for them which is in doubt for a long time. They forget that the same people can also vote them out and, at the moment, it is only a matter of time.

The same goes for fox hunting. Despite of a ban the ‘Elite’ still does and will not be prosecuted. May also fights to get the ban lifted but so far MPs seem to show some principles and refuse to agree.

They all seem to be so arrogant to ignore the law.

INDIAN ELEPHANT -- AFRICAN ELEPHANT

AFRICAN ELEPHANT

The elephant is the largest living land animal. It weighs 6,5 tonnes and measures up to 3.3 meter tall.

A PREHISTORIC PYGMY ELEPHANT

The largest prehistoric elephant was the steppe mammoth. It was to be found all over the central Europe a million years ago. A skeleton found in Germany suggest a height of 4,5m. The prehistoric elephant which had straight tusks and lived in northern Germany about 300,000 years ago and had longer tusks than today's mammals. Its tusks measured on average 5m.

WOOLLY MAMMOT

A single woolly mammoth tusk which is to be found in the Franzens Museum in Brno, Slovakia. It measures 5,02m on the outside curve.

The heaviest single fossil tusk on record weighed 150kg.

ASIAN ELEPHANT

ASIAN ELEPHANT

ASIAN ELEPHANT FOR CELEBRATION

We have two species - The African elephant and the Asian elephant. They are of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea. Within that are eleven species of hyraxes and the aardvark.

There are two types of African elephants. The Bush elephant and the forests elephant. The forest elephant is smaller, the ears are rounder and the task is thinner as well as turns inwards. This helps to move through the thick vegetation. Although they are moving in a group, they are very hard or almost impossible to spot because of the density of the forest. Sometimes they come into a clearing for a drink or a wallowing in the mud. They have been seen to dig up mud with their tusks and drink the brew. It is assumed that this is to get certain minerals.

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The tusks of an elephant start growing when it is two years old. From there on the tusk is growing continuously. Wild African elephants can live to an age of 60 years. A fully grown elephant's tusks can weigh up to 60kg and a cow's tusk only 9kg. Very old elephants used to have tusks of 3m long but nowadays are very seldom because of the ivory poachers.

Ivory is a mixture of dentine, cartilaginous tissue and calcium salts. These tusks are used to strip bark off trees, dig for roots and minerals. They also used for a display of superiority or as a weapon.

Elephants are herbivores and can crush coarse vegetation in large quantities. To do this they have a huge head, powerful chewing muscles and big, strong teeth. Although, they have only four teeth, they are like massive millstones of ivory, grinding it into a pulp before swallowing. To support the trunk and these great, heavy teeth, the elephant has a large head. The skull itself is very light and has a honeycomb with air cells and cavities.

The trunk enables the elephants to pick food from the ground or the trees. Although, very muscular and powerful it is also very sensitive. It can rip out trees and branches and yet flexible enough to plug individual fruits, leaves and shoots. It is sensitive to smell and is used to investigate new objects. When meeting other elephants it is used to touch and greet them.

The elephants have tree trunk legs and unusual, beefy feet with broad footpads and large nails. The bones are spread out and have a broad bed of elastic, spongy tissue and a flat circular sole. These pads spread the huge weight and give a silent move in the forest and on open ground very little track. It ambles along at a speed of 5km/h.  It puts both right feet forward and then both left feet. It can run or charge at 40km/h

The large ears have several functions apart from hearing. They can be fanned out to show threat or using it as fans to cool themselves

A herd of elephants consists of females and calves of various ages. Each herd has an old female which leads the group. It is related to all the females in the herd. She is called the matriarch. She might be past breeding age but has great knowledge and experience. She knows their territory and leads them to waterhole and seasonal food. They have a strong bond within the family and have a complex society. They also help out with guiding and guarding young ones. At birth it weighs 120kg and by the time it is six it weighs 1000kg.

The females stay in the herd all their lives but the bulls leave when they are adults. Bulls live a solitary live or sometimes live in small groups with other bulls. They don't bond with the female.

Maturity is reached at about 10-12 years of age. The forest elephant matures earlier. Birth can be given at any time but mostly in the rainy season when food is plenty. Females in heat give a trumpet call and bulls travel far to check up on the female.

Bush elephants seek shelter in bushes or trees. Sometimes, they sleep for short while lying on their sides. They can't do this for long otherwise their internal organ suffers. They mostly sleep standing up. Forest elephants feed from early evening and through the night.

They can eat a wide variety like fruits, leaves, shoots, buds, twigs, branches, bark, roots and tubers. Also they raid crops. Plantations of bananas, mangoes, sweet potatoes and sugar cane. They eat up to 225kg a day. Some of the food is hardly digested and therefore it needs a great amount of food to get its nourishment. An elephant drinks every day. It sucks water up with its drunk and squirts it into its mouth. It can drink 100-300 litres. It also uses the water to squirt it over itself.

There are four Asian subspecies which are the Indian, Malaysian, Ceylon and Sumatran elephant. They are only living in the forests and of smaller size. They move through the forests in single file and on well trotten path. They can travel long distances to find food. Asian elephants don't grow tusk but for 10% of the Ceylon bull elephants. They also have smaller ears and have two small tomes on top of their head. The trunk has only one lip at the end.

Elephants were once used for warfare but even nowadays they are still important animals in Asia. The mahout looks after its elephant because he appreciates its good nature, intelligence, strength and memory. They are priceless in rough terrain and road less, thick forests. A lot of them work in timber forests where machinery is useless. They are also used for ceremonies. People breed elephants in captivity but still round the wild elephants in a dangerous drive. Well respected elephant cowboys will train them.

In a remote area of Nepal, giant elephants have been seen. It is assumed that they are especially large animals of the Asian species.