Memorials to individual animals in zoos

Yes, I agree, I think to some extent and in spite of the improvements in husbandry made over the decades (and there have been some huge strides) it is still very difficult to maintain bull elephants and elephants in general in captivity.

 

Thanks for sharing @The Cassowary !

Now, that is a curious one, as there seems to be a bias more towards mammals and particularly great apes in zoo memorials but this is a crocodile and a huge one and wild caught at that.

I don't know too much about Gomek but I think it is quite a fitting tribute to his life at the farm (crocodile farming has done a great deal of good for saltwater crocodiles and literally brought them back from the brink of extinction).

One thing that I really like is that they have Papua New Guinean artifacts surrounding him as those look to be masks from the Sepik region of the country (wonder if he was caught there ?) and there are tribes from there for which the saltwater crocodile is totemic and sacred.

 

Gomek was a very popular animal at the alligator farm for the portion of his life that he spent there, both for his massive size (nearly 18 feet in length and just shy of a ton) and for his relative tameness that allowed keepers to get very close to him during feeding demonstrations. This and the St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s heavy focus on crocodilians is probably why it was felt he was deserving of such a grand memorial.

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm isn’t actually a true alligator farm, despite the name. It started out as a tourist attraction in 1893 and is now an AZA-accredited zoological park that houses nearly every species of crocodilian as well as other reptile species, birds, and small mammals.

I don’t actually know what part of Papua New Guinea Gomek came from, so you could be right.

 

Since you're including former zoo animals mounted in museums, here's a photo of London Zoo's gorilla "Guy"

Guy the gorilla; Natural History Museum; 8th May 2011 - ZooChat

and two photos of Berlin's gorilla "Bobby"

Gorilla (Bobby); Museum fur Naturekunde, Berlin; 10th September 2011 - ZooChat

Gorilla (Bobby); Museum fur Naturekunde, Berlin; 10th September 2011 - ZooChat

 

There are actually two different statues of the bear "Winnie" at London Zoo.

There is also a statue commemorating the giant panda "Ming"

Statue commemorating giant panda Ming; London Zoo; 28th November 2015 - ZooChat

 

Bristol Zoo have a bust of the gorilla Alfred. Originally sited on the steps leading up to the Monkey Temple, it was later moved to a niche in the wall by the entrance of the 1984 Ape House that later became the Nocturnal house. Its still there afaik- surprised if there is no photo of it in the gallery.

The Orangutan family group at Edinburgh depicts their famous Sumatran male Mickey, with a female and baby- though the statue is a bit of illusion as in reality, though breeding occured twice(with different females) and these were the first in the UK, neither baby lived very long (in fact Mickey was responsible for the death of one of them).

 

When I visited Cincinnati years ago now, Martha's aviary/cage was still there as a memorial. Is that still the case now?

 

One of the gorillas from Lincoln Park Zoo was taxidermied and has a memorial at the Field Museum- cant think off the name of the top of my head.

 

The famous Lincoln Park gorilla, mounted in the Field Museum, was called "Bushman".

 

Singapore Zoo has a statue of Ah Meng the Sumatran orangutan (a rescue animal that lived for many decades and had many offspring) as well as a giant poster of Inuka, their final polar bear. Ueno Zoo has a Shinto shrine/tower as a memorial to all the animals they had in the past.

 

I bet he was, he was a giant and I'm sure a great ambassador for his species.

Apparently he was probably born around 1927 (though some sources say 1917) and was about 70 years old give or take when he passed away which is an incredible lifespan.

I've found a blog post which states that he was collected / captured in the Fly River region of PNG in the 1960's and was already an adult when caught.

There are a few things on the blog that I'm not sure about the accuracy / veracity of, for example it states that he had been a predator of human beings :

"by the 1960’s, he had started to earn something of a reputation among the natives of the Fly River. There were probably three reasons for this. One was that he was very black. A second was that he was very big. And third, and most importantly, was that he had taken to killing and eating them. In their eyes, he wasn’t just a crocodile – he was Louma, a crocodile possessed by an evil spirit"

 

My former boss/mentor used to work with Gomek at St. Augustine. He also got to see Lonesome George at the Darwin Research Station.

 

Thanks for sharing these @Tim May !

Have seen the taxidermy of Guy at the Natural History Museum and it is very impressive but haven't seen the one of Bobby in Berlin yet.

I remember seeing the statue of "Winnie" at the London zoo but don't remember the panda statue.

I agree with your comment on the statue in the gallery by the way, it is quite an underwhelming monument in some ways.

 

Thanks for sharing @Pertinax.

I think the orangutang statue at Edinburgh is tastefully done but yes it is a bit of a glossing over of the reproductive record with that particular species.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Alfred the gorilla that is now a taxidermy specimen at the Bristol museum ?

I seem to remember reading a news story that the gorilla taxidermy went AWOL in the 1950's when some students briefly stole it for a practical joke or something like that.

 

Thanks for the comment @RatioTile !

Are there any pictures of that statue in the gallery by any chance ?

The Ueno zoo shinto tower sounds like a really interesting example, thank you for mentioning it !

That is very interesting indeed.

What did he tell you about his memories of Gomek ?

 

Ah Meng statue, December 2015 - ZooChat

Also, a corner of the zoo restaurant is devoted to her, and named after her, with photos of her with various celebrities. (Orangutan 'Ah Meng')

 

Yes, Gomek really was a maneater. That’s why he was taken from the wild in the first place. It makes his tame demeanor in captivity all the more surprising, as you’d expect a man-eating crocodile to be much more aggressive towards people.

 

When Paignton's last elephant, Duchess, died in July 2019, a fund was set up to provide a memorial to her. Presumably covid19 has got in the way of anything being accomplished.

 

More great ape memorials at zoos.

A bust of "Alfred" the gorilla at Bristol zoo :

A short youtube video about the history of "Alfred" and his strange afterlife as a taxidermy specimen at the museum :

A bust of "Ngagi" the mountain gorilla at San Diego zoo:



Photo credits to @Nanook and @betsy.

 

I seem to remember that when the Alfred the gorilla bust was at the Monkey Temple, the inscription read something like' copied from the death mask of Alfred the gorilla...' but that rather gruesome description was removed when it was moved. I hope they take it to the Wild Place/new zoo site when they close.