Earl Tatum Holiday Island Animal Park

T

Tennessee

Member
I posted this below in a thread of great hoofstock collections. I wanted to start a new one to see if anyone else ever went to Earl Tatum's in Arkansas or Missouri. I grew going to his farms and i can remember just about everything about it. I saw and learned alot of things from just being around him, watching how he worked animals, and snooping around....haha. He had an amazing collection from time to time and basically developed single handedly our husbandry of african hoofstock.

I found some really neat pictures the other day in my attic. I took two rolls of film of Earl Tatums farm in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1989. There were 1.5 Roan Antelope and two calves at side, large group of around 15 gemsbok, kangaroos and wallabies(wallabies were their specialty in the mid 90's where i once saw close to 100 bennetts in one barn), small groups of impala nyala and bongo. I also have pictures of their pet snow leopard playing with my dad. Did anyone on here ever go to Earl Tatum years ago? I would love to share stories of the crazy things i saw! He might have been a shunned in the media but nobody came close, even today, to his knowledge of husbandry of hoofstock.

Last time i was there was 1998 and there were a 1.2 Topi and a good sized group of persian gazelles among many others. I came home with a pair of bottle baby persians gazelles, the most beautiful gemsbok bull i've ever seen since, and my second pair of muntjacs(the male died just last year probably had 50+ babies for me), but couldn't talk him out of the Topi's. I stayed at his place that night and in the morning woke up, went down the stairs and looked out at 15 giraffes right outside the window! Believe it or not....

If you remember anything about his place or him, please share with us.
 
I've also got pictures of his place in the early 80's of his collection of goats. All the pens have chainlink tops and there are Western turs, chamois, and unidentified ibex species. I think i remember a rare subspecies of Aoudad with a white V on their chest. Can't recall the latin name. Pretty neat stuff. Somebody has to have some stories
 
I have heard plenty of stories about earl. i have never been there. but i did grow up using a trailer of his design. Works well
 
No, he was the biggest animal dealer in North America from the 60's to the late 90's when he died. His wife still has his collection in Missouri. She raises a few super exotics(ex. bongo, dama gazelles, kangaroos, sitatungas, nyala, greater kudu, sable, roan, gemsbok etc.)

Google "Earl Tatum animal dealer" there is alot of info. Mostly bad but the media usually doesn't tell the good things. He designed the Eagle body trailers that are still used today, many of the "tamers" came from his designs, giraffe husbandry, tranquilization specialist, etc. He was truly a hoofstock specialist. Ask some of the "old timers" at your zoo, they will definately have some stories!
 
According to Richard Weigl's book, The Longevity of Mammals in Captivity:

Earl Tatum Holiday Island Animal Park obtained a Russian saiga (Saiga tatarica tatarica) from the Oklahoma City Zoo on April 28th 1989, and then on July 24th 1989, that same animal went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and died there on April 24th 1998
 
The only time I had ever heard of the Tatum's was in relation to Montgomery Zoo and the AZA situation.
 
Did anyone on here ever go to Earl Tatum years ago? If you remember anything about his place or him, please share with us.

Earl Tatum was my uncle, in the 70' on Easter break week. I went with him for a week, moving animals around from zoo to zoo. We averaged 50 miles an hour, 24 hours a day for the nine days that we traveled.

On that trip, he moved about 20-30 species of animals, orangutan's, baby ducks, zebra, the one that chased him into the alligator pond, he said the zebra was more frightening that an alligator. He told me he wanted to take my picture and to just stand over there and face me. He then, of course had trouble with the camera, so it took a while. A while, while a Rino came over and smelled all around me. I was 17, I had to change my pants. They were the ones where the little 2-3 foot deer caught my pants leg and ripped a foot of the seam out.

He often stopped by the house on his way home (which was So. California in Ojia at that time). One time a lion that he was transporting got out of the trailer. It ended up in my bedroom, because I had an outside door to let him into, which I had to go open for him, so that he could shoot it with a tranquilizer.

When my parents retired, they also moved to Holiday Island, which is close to his 'zoo'.
 
ungulate nerd said:
According to Richard Weigl's book, The Longevity of Mammals in Captivity:

Earl Tatum Holiday Island Animal Park obtained a Russian saiga (Saiga tatarica tatarica) from the Oklahoma City Zoo on April 28th 1989, and then on July 24th 1989, that same animal went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and died there on April 24th 1998
Click to expand...
That must be a record longevity for a captive Saiga?
 
The record,according to Weigl`s book, is exactly 10 years for a female born at Cologne Zoo which lived and died at the same place between 1993 and 2003.There is also a longer record in Japan than the one above.I doubt that these records have been broken since this indispensible book was printed in 2005. You should track a copy down.
 
I worked for Earl and Diane Tatum from 1988 to 1990 and it was one of the best jobs I ever had, they were so caring and special to their animals and I got to go to alot of zoos and got to go to the San Diego zoo and animal park. Mr and and Mrs. Tatum were the most caring and nicest people you could ever meet.
 
Steven said:
Did anyone on here ever go to Earl Tatum years ago? If you remember anything about his place or him, please share with us.

Earl Tatum was my uncle, in the 70' on Easter break week. I went with him for a week, moving animals around from zoo to zoo. We averaged 50 miles an hour, 24 hours a day for the nine days that we traveled.

On that trip, he moved about 20-30 species of animals, orangutan's, baby ducks, zebra, the one that chased him into the alligator pond, he said the zebra was more frightening that an alligator. He told me he wanted to take my picture and to just stand over there and face me. He then, of course had trouble with the camera, so it took a while. A while, while a Rino came over and smelled all around me. I was 17, I had to change my pants. They were the ones where the little 2-3 foot deer caught my pants leg and ripped a foot of the seam out.

He often stopped by the house on his way home (which was So. California in Ojia at that time). One time a lion that he was transporting got out of the trailer. It ended up in my bedroom, because I had an outside door to let him into, which I had to go open for him, so that he could shoot it with a tranquilizer.

When my parents retired, they also moved to Holiday Island, which is close to his 'zoo'.
Click to expand...
How are you his nephew I knew all his brothers and sisters
 
Tennessee said:
No, he was the biggest animal dealer in North America from the 60's to the late 90's when he died. His wife still has his collection in Missouri. She raises a few super exotics(ex. bongo, dama gazelles, kangaroos, sitatungas, nyala, greater kudu, sable, roan, gemsbok etc.)

Google "Earl Tatum animal dealer" there is alot of info. Mostly bad but the media usually doesn't tell the good things. He designed the Eagle body trailers that are still used today, many of the "tamers" came from his designs, giraffe husbandry, tranquilization specialist, etc. He was truly a hoofstock specialist. Ask some of the "old timers" at your zoo, they will definately have some stories!
Click to expand...
The media didn't know what they were talking about Earl was extremely good to all the animals in his park.
 
Tennessee said:
I posted this below in a thread of great hoofstock collections. I wanted to start a new one to see if anyone else ever went to Earl Tatum's in Arkansas or Missouri. I grew going to his farms and i can remember just about everything about it. I saw and learned alot of things from just being around him, watching how he worked animals, and snooping around....haha. He had an amazing collection from time to time and basically developed single handedly our husbandry of african hoofstock.

I found some really neat pictures the other day in my attic. I took two rolls of film of Earl Tatums farm in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1989. There were 1.5 Roan Antelope and two calves at side, large group of around 15 gemsbok, kangaroos and wallabies(wallabies were their specialty in the mid 90's where i once saw close to 100 bennetts in one barn), small groups of impala nyala and bongo. I also have pictures of their pet snow leopard playing with my dad. Did anyone on here ever go to Earl Tatum years ago? I would love to share stories of the crazy things i saw! He might have been a shunned in the media but nobody came close, even today, to his knowledge of husbandry of hoofstock.

Last time i was there was 1998 and there were a 1.2 Topi and a good sized group of persian gazelles among many others. I came home with a pair of bottle baby persians gazelles, the most beautiful gemsbok bull i've ever seen since, and my second pair of muntjacs(the male died just last year probably had 50+ babies for me), but couldn't talk him out of the Topi's. I stayed at his place that night and in the morning woke up, went down the stairs and looked out at 15 giraffes right outside the window! Believe it or not....

If you remember anything about his place or him, please share with us.
Click to expand...
I was working for Earl and Diane then and Diane's twin brother Danny worked there.
 
Steven said:
Did anyone on here ever go to Earl Tatum years ago? If you remember anything about his place or him, please share with us.

Earl Tatum was my uncle, in the 70' on Easter break week. I went with him for a week, moving animals around from zoo to zoo. We averaged 50 miles an hour, 24 hours a day for the nine days that we traveled.

On that trip, he moved about 20-30 species of animals, orangutan's, baby ducks, zebra, the one that chased him into the alligator pond, he said the zebra was more frightening that an alligator. He told me he wanted to take my picture and to just stand over there and face me. He then, of course had trouble with the camera, so it took a while. A while, while a Rino came over and smelled all around me. I was 17, I had to change my pants. They were the ones where the little 2-3 foot deer caught my pants leg and ripped a foot of the seam out.

He often stopped by the house on his way home (which was So. California in Ojia at that time). One time a lion that he was transporting got out of the trailer. It ended up in my bedroom, because I had an outside door to let him into, which I had to go open for him, so that he could shoot it with a tranquilizer.

When my parents retired, they also moved to Holiday Island, which is close to his 'zoo'.
Click to expand...
Steven said:
Did anyone on here ever go to Earl Tatum years ago? If you remember anything about his place or him, please share with us.

Earl Tatum was my uncle, in the 70' on Easter break week. I went with him for a week, moving animals around from zoo to zoo. We averaged 50 miles an hour, 24 hours a day for the nine days that we traveled.

On that trip, he moved about 20-30 species of animals, orangutan's, baby ducks, zebra, the one that chased him into the alligator pond, he said the zebra was more frightening that an alligator. He told me he wanted to take my picture and to just stand over there and face me. He then, of course had trouble with the camera, so it took a while. A while, while a Rino came over and smelled all around me. I was 17, I had to change my pants. They were the ones where the little 2-3 foot deer caught my pants leg and ripped a foot of the seam out.

He often stopped by the house on his way home (which was So. California in Ojia at that time). One time a lion that he was transporting got out of the trailer. It ended up in my bedroom, because I had an outside door to let him into, which I had to go open for him, so that he could shoot it with a tranquilizer.

When my parents retired, they also moved to Holiday Island, which is close to his 'zoo'.
Click to expand...


My dad, Lee Sims, was the curator at the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo in the early and mid 1970's, and friends with Earl. There I rode a zebra, Smiley, that Earl had trained in the early/mid 1970's. Earl's chimpanzees were the best! I have pics somewhere of him, 1970's, herding longhorn steers. He got gored a bit by one of them. I remember his light blue shirt soaking in the sink. And I remember squishing it around to help get the blood out. Also have a pic of me and Petey the cougar. Earl was one of a kind when it came to training animals! I've never seen anyone since Earl that could make that kind of connection with animals, domestic, farm or wild!!!
 
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