The most famous captive elephant in recorded history was without a doubt Jumbo. Jumbo was a male African elephant that was captured as a calf In 1861, probably In the French Sudan, south of lake Chad, and the transferred to the garden des Plantes In Paris, France. In 1865 he was exchanged for an Indian rhinoceros and was sent to the London zoological Gardens, England, where he was given the unforgettable name, Jumbo. (The origin of the name "Jumbo" Is not from a Swahili word meaning "hello" as was first thought, but It Is Infect from the West African word "onjamba" meaning "an elephant")
For fifteen years Jumbo gave rides to many children In Regents Park, London, England. At the age of twenty-one, Jumbo began to attack the walls of the elephant house, breaking off his tusks and causing damage to the Iron reinforced plates of his stall.

Early In 1882 the London zoological society sold him to the famous American showman, P. T. Barnum. This deal caused a strong public reaction as Jumbo was regarded as a national figure. For three years Jumbo delighted Americans. He was the greatest and largest attraction shown In the Barnum & London Circus. Although Jumbo was large for his age, It was undoubtedly Barnum's showmanship, which created the Image that Jumbo was "bigger than life".
Jumbo's glorious career came to a tragic end on September 15, 1885, when a locomotive at St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, struck him. A monument was erected here in 1985. Jumbo's skeleton is still on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Interest in Jumbo did not stop there; He was used, as a specimen by Richard Lydekker, a British naturalist, In 1907 to describe a new subspecies, now believed to be the bush African elephant.
Jumbo will never be forgotten; his name lives on as the symbol for all stupendous things.

MOTTY - A UNIQUE BUNDLE.

It has always been said that Asian and African elephants would never be able to Interbreed because this would violate the biological concepts of species and genus. The two species are spread thousands of kilometers apart, which means that inbreeding in the wild is practically impossible. However, In captivity conditions are artificial. An unusual cross - breeding took place In Chester Zoo, England, In 1978, when an Asian female (Sheba) and an African male (JumbolIno) mated. The result was Motty, unfortunately he died at the tender age of ten days. Motty had an interesting mix of external features. His ears were the same shape and size of the African elephant, complete with the pointed lobe. His trunk was deeply wrinkled like the African but it only had one "finger" like that of the Asian. His body was overall shaped like the African but with a center hump as In the Asians. His legs were long and slim, like an Africans, but his forefeet bore five nails and his back feet four as In the Asian. Motty's mounted skin is on display at the British Museum, London.

AHMED - A SYMBOL OF CONSERVATION

Very few wild elephants attain a legendary status when alive. Ahmed, however, did. He was an African male born around 1919. Ahmed Is of Arabic origin and it means "praised" Ahmed had huge tusks even for an elephant of his size. They gently curved in a perfect symmetry and reached to the ground. They measured about three meters long each and averaged about 68 kilograms. These magnificent tusks added to his legendary status, but they also put his life in grave danger. The average male elephant tusk weighed approximately 32 kilograms. This meant that Ahmed was a target for Ivory hunters. The general public developed a deep concern for his safety and during 1972 - 73, a total of 5,000 letters and cards were delivered to the East African Wildlife society. This resulted in a presidential Decree Issued by the late president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta to protect Ahmed, as well as a team of soldiers to guard him day and night.
On January 17, 1974, Ahmed sadly died from natural causes. He was fifty-five years old when he died, he was three meters tall at the shoulder, and weighed approximately 5,000 kilograms. His skeleton is on display at the national Museum of Kenya in Nairobi. In 1977 Ahmed was chosen for the logo of Elephant Interest Group, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
Ahmed is still Kenya's most celebrated elephant and is regarded as a national monument and a symbol of conservation.

RAJA - A NATIONAL TREASURE

From the 1930s to 1988, one captive male elephant led an annual procession In Kandy, Sri Lanka, to honor Buddha. Raja, deemed the country's "most venerated moving monument", carried the tooth relic of Buddha In a golden casket on his back, at the head of a ceremonial parade called the Perahera, each summer, with more than fifty decorated elephants In Sri Lanka's former capital. In 1985 the nation's president declared Raja a national treasure. When Raja died In July 1988 at the age of sixty-five, Buddhist monks paid tribute to him, while thousands of mourners viewed his body. The national museums assisted the Buddhists in preserving his skin and creating a mounted version, which was unveiled In December 1989. It stands in a museum at the side of the Temple of the Tooth relic In Kandy. Raja was succeeded by Raja the Younger; a male aged forty-six.