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mukisi

definitely non pc - ok in early 60's

chimps tea party,dolphin house in background,bearpit behind that then tapir house

definitely non pc - ok in early 60's
mukisi, 29 Feb 2012
    • mukisi
      chimps tea party,dolphin house in background,bearpit behind that then tapir house
    • Parrotsandrew
      I'm getting more deliriously happy by the minute. Oh the wonderful memories. I loved going into the Tapir House (especially when one specimen shot a stream of urine straight into my father's face - that was in 1969/70, I wrote about it in my school diary on the Monday morning when I was in the first year of juniors). Was the Black Rhino housed there for its very brief Flamingo career before heading for Cleethorpes? It was so brief I did not see it, only a photo in a newspaper and it looked like the Tapir paddock.
    • mukisi
      Ceasar, the black rhino baby came from Kenya, still on the bottle, having been delivered from a poached dead mother.This was1966.
      The photo was taken in 1964 with Carole & Doug Petrie presenting the tea party.
      I think Fred went to the Llanerch deer park in St Asaph, before Emily came. The photo on Bubbles site of 2 elephants on the lawn was probably 2 others.Quite a few came from Thailand in the 60's to Flamingo.
      The 2 larger elephants arrived after fred had gone.
    • Parrotsandrew
      Did Fred go and then come back again? The Elephant in the photo taken by my father in 1966 I posted in January was the animal I knew as "Freddie". I remember there was a fact or two about him on the big notice board opposite the end of the hall. Also Bubbles's press cutting "All in a day's work for Fred" is dated 6th April 1966 (during the building of the new Dolphin House), plus the Newcastle winter zoo information about 1965/66 says Fred was from Flamingo Park. Alternatively, of course, two animals could have had the same name but I remember only the one Freddie as I'd probably have been too young in 1964 to know otherwise. As I mentioned on Bubbles's newspaper articles thread, according to Clinton Keeling's account of Llanerch/St Asaph that place's guidebook (written by Doug Petrie) mentioned Hannibal the "baby Elephant". Of course I realise things were moved around APP collections (robmv's information says Fred had a spell at Cleethorpes) and it is difficult to keep track of what was happening, especially 45 or 46 years later. As I also said on the articles thread, I am increasing confused over Hannibal's APP and Scotia career. Going back to Fred/Freddie, I think the animal I knew by that name is the Elephant on the barrel in the postcard.
    • Bubbles
      It can all be quite confusing trying to piece together which elephant was which, but I've been to the Library again and found an article from Feb 21st 1963 which has a picture of a female baby Elephant called 'Dixie' . Do you know anything about her?
    • Parrotsandrew
      I'm now thinking Dixie must have been the Elephant in my father's 1963 photo and not Tania as I was thinking last week. The slide was developed in May 1963.
    • Bubbles
      I've just come across the screen shot I took when browsing a newspaper archive and it mentions moving their 'prize Indian elephant' called Hannibal to a new house which separates.. (the rest is missing as you had to pay to read the rest!) It was dated May 14th 1970 if that helps.
    • Parrotsandrew
      Thank-you Debbie. Actually that is one of articles you have sent me - "...him more from visitors". It says he had been grabbing handbags. It must be from a transatlantic newspaper as it says "York, England" and mentions "checkbooks". Regarding Hannibal, Mukisi kindly sent me a PM with details of his time at Flamingo Park, so I'm not confused where he is concerned any more. I do wonder where this "new house" was though. There was that stall next to the main indoor Elephant area, but I never saw an Elephant in there and as far as I remember there was no moat in it (maybe there were shackling rings at the rear?), just a wall with a bit of fencing on it to separate it from the public. Could it have been behind the scenes? In 2001 on a lovely February day 48 hours before the announcement of the foot and mouth outbreak I was shown a very young Bactrian Camel that was being hand-reared. It was led out of a stall at the side of the former Elephant House. I can't imagine it would ever have had a fairly large bull Elephant in it though.
    • Bubbles
      what year was the Elephant house built near the obelisk?
    • Parrotsandrew
      I don't know the year. I'd say around 1968, but in the"The Penguin Guide to British Zoos" (1970) Geoffrey Schomberg mentions plans for a new Elephant House (and Ape House, so that didn't happen) unless he meant yet another one which was never built. I would say maybe he did his research a couple of years earlier, but he does mention Cuddles being there although that could have been added to the text of course. Clearly the house was open by May 1970 as Hannibal was in it, but at first it housed young African Elephants. As I have mentioned before, the first three animals I saw in there were Africans about two years old. Something else I have mentioned on other threads is that there was a period when no Elephants were on display and the cashier at the gate would apologise for this. We know there were Elephants in the small house in 1966, but do we have any evidence for 1967?

      I've just had a look at the Flamingo threads as I remember someone writing about being a volunteer in the Elephant House around 1970, but I can't find anything. Perhaps it was on your website Debbie (unless I'm just looking in the wrong place!).
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  • Category:
    Flamingo Land
    Uploaded By:
    mukisi
    Date:
    29 Feb 2012
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