Earl Tatum Holiday Island Animal Park

[Charlie Quinn]

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 worked at the holiday island animal park restaurant in 1976 and 1977. I knew Earl and at one point got a ride to Chicago from him on one of his deliveries of a couple of big cats. He was a tough son of a bitch. I worked for Jim Thompson in the diner. Earl had a hippie couple renting a house on the property and working the zoo for him. Their 8 or 9 year old actually got mauled by a panther when he went into the cage his dad was cleaning out. The cat opened up the top of the kid’s head. Lotta stitches! Conditions were rough for the animals, at least for the big cats. Earl had a tiger that he would bring out for photos with kids, etc. The cat was huge but had had its incisors cut. I used to play hide and seek with the cat when things were slow working the grill. They were in a rotunda of cages, cement floors and cyclone fences. This was a long time ago, people did what they did, animals were a commodity and the zoos were happy to pay up. Earl was an unapologetic entrepreneur, and he worked and handled animals in a way that isn’t seen much today. It wasn’t for the faint of heart!

 

[Charlie Quinn]

I worked at the holiday island animal park restaurant in 1976 and 1977. I knew Earl and at one point got a ride to Chicago from him on one of his deliveries of a couple of big cats. He was a tough son of a bitch. I worked for Jim Thompson in the diner. Earl had a hippie couple renting a house on the property and working the zoo for him. Their 8 or 9 year old actually got mauled by a panther when he went into the cage his dad was cleaning out. The cat opened up the top of the kid’s head. Lotta stitches! Conditions were rough for the animals, at least for the big cats. Earl had a tiger that he would bring out for photos with kids, etc. The cat was huge but had had its incisors cut. I used to play hide and seek with the cat when things were slow working the grill. They were in a rotunda of cages, cement floors and cyclone fences. This was a long time ago, people did what they did, animals were a commodity and the zoos were happy to pay up. Earl was an unapologetic entrepreneur, and he worked and handled animals in a way that isn’t seen much today. It wasn’t for the faint of heart!

Canines

 

[TheAnimalKing]

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'.

Can you dm me?

 

[TheAnimalKing]

Yes Steven was Earl's Nephew as am I. I also have much knowledge about Earl as I had traveled with him and spent much time at his house in the 60s when the only hoofed animals were horses.

Can you dm me?

 

[TheAnimalKing]

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.

Can you dm me?