Taronga Zoo He-man

A

Ara

Well-Known Member
I saw on an old thread here somewhere that Patrick was wondering how He-Man, Taronga's former bull elephant got his name.

I'm almost certain that when he first went on display at Taronga that his name was Herman (at least that's what he was called in press clippings from the time), and Herman he was called for many years, until the Masters of the Universe thing arrived and some genius dubbed him He-Man.

Since then he was He-Man.
 
thanks ara. i was absolutely POSITIVE that this elephant could not have been called he-man his entire life, since the masters of the universe only came about in the early to mid eighties and he-man was certainly a lot older than that!!

herman is not a great name for an elephant, but it is certainly a lot better than he-man!

just a note for the future: if you don't mind, try to locate the original thread rather than create an all new one (the search threads function is usually pretty effective) as its nice for all the members to be able to go back and pick up where the conversation was left off. when we create entirly new ones, we often end up repeating ourselves a lot more.
 
Yeah, point taken patrick, I'll make sure I do that in future.

While I'm rabbiting on about Taronga's bull elephants, I'd like to record something here about He-Man's predecessor, Gandhi.

Gandhi came to Taronga in 1950, when I was 4 years old and lived there for the next 18 years. He was therefore the bull elephant of my childhood and I was tremendously impressed with him. These were the days when feeding by the public was permitted, so I always used to take him an apple. (I believe he came from Bullen's circus when he got a bit too hot to handle, but I'm not absolutely certain of that.)

He led a restricted existence, being continuously chained by both front feet to another long chain. He was chained outside during the day, and inside the elephant house at night. It seemed a bit overdone to me, as he was behind both a moat AND a stong steel fence.(Thank heavens elephants are not chained up all day like that now.)

His was a fairly miserable, monastic existence. He was never used to attempt a mating, as far as I am aware and he could only touch trunks with the females in the next yard, being separated from them by the swimming pool and a short race about 2 metres wide.

It was a classic case of a circus animal no longer wanted - a shame!

His skull is today in the Macleay Museum at Sydney Uni.
 
He-Man or Herman apparently was born in 1956 and came via Singapore to Australia (1963 i think, wonder if the import ship went via Perth en-route to east coast Aus as it was the year 6 year old Tricia arrived at Perth Zoo). Heman lost his tusk when he fell into the trench barrier at Taronga Zoo's Elephant Temple Exhibit and broke the tusk and the interior part became infected so had to be surgically removed. I remember him from 1994-2005 and Burma and (Renee?) Burma came in 1982 from Bullens Circus I think (she's now aged about 66 I think so guess born 1954, good for her). Apparently Heman was much loved by his keepers. Sadly died December 28, 2006 aged 50.
 
steveroberts said:
He-Man or Herman apparently was born in 1956 and came via Singapore to Australia (1963 i think, wonder if the import ship went via Perth en-route to east coast Aus as it was the year 6 year old Tricia arrived at Perth Zoo). Heman lost his tusk when he fell into the trench barrier at Taronga Zoo's Elephant Temple Exhibit and broke the tusk and the interior part became infected so had to be surgically removed. I remember him from 1994-2005 and Burma and (Renee?) Burma came in 1982 from Bullens Circus I think (she's now aged about 66 I think so guess born 1954, good for her). Apparently Heman was much loved by his keepers. Sadly died December 28, 2006 aged 50.
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He -man was very impressive only saw him once!
 
steveroberts said:
He-Man or Herman apparently was born in 1956 and came via Singapore to Australia (1963 i think, wonder if the import ship went via Perth en-route to east coast Aus as it was the year 6 year old Tricia arrived at Perth Zoo). Heman lost his tusk when he fell into the trench barrier at Taronga Zoo's Elephant Temple Exhibit and broke the tusk and the interior part became infected so had to be surgically removed. I remember him from 1994-2005 and Burma and (Renee?) Burma came in 1982 from Bullens Circus I think (she's now aged about 66 I think so guess born 1954, good for her). Apparently Heman was much loved by his keepers. Sadly died December 28, 2006 aged 50.
Click to expand...

Heman is a Hindi name. It means ‘golden yellow’ or ‘made of gold.’

Heman was born 1963 in the wild and arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1963; Burma was born 1962 in the wild and arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1982. They both moved to Taronga Western Plains Zoo in 2005.

When Heman arrived at Taronga Zoo, there was a female named Sarina already there. Sarina was born 1933 in the wild and arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1938. She died there in 1971.

Renee was mentioned in Darrill Clements book, Postcards from the Zoo, as were two other females named Jill and Joan. It’s a while since I read it, but from memory Ranee died late 1990’s and had a memorial garden planted in her memory. Once the Elephant Database is working again, I can confirm dates. It currently falls to pieces when you try to run even the simplest of searches.
 
steveroberts said:
He-Man or Herman apparently was born in 1956 and came via Singapore to Australia (1963 i think, wonder if the import ship went via Perth en-route to east coast Aus as it was the year 6 year old Tricia arrived at Perth Zoo). Heman lost his tusk when he fell into the trench barrier at Taronga Zoo's Elephant Temple Exhibit and broke the tusk and the interior part became infected so had to be surgically removed. I remember him from 1994-2005 and Burma and (Renee?) Burma came in 1982 from Bullens Circus I think (she's now aged about 66 I think so guess born 1954, good for her). Apparently Heman was much loved by his keepers. Sadly died December 28, 2006 aged 50.
Click to expand...

Yes Burma was originally at Bullens for over 2 decades.

Heman was an impressive male. Much like Bong Su with his massive size and tusks.

Here’s a photo of him from 2004, courtesy of @Simon Hampel .

full
 
Zoofan15 said:
Heman is a Hindi name. It means ‘golden yellow’ or ‘made of gold.’

Heman was born 1963 in the wild and arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1963; Burma was born 1962 in the wild and arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1982. They both moved to Taronga Western Plains Zoo in 2005.

When Heman arrived at Taronga Zoo, there was a female named Sarina already there. Sarina was born 1933 in the wild and arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1938. She died there in 1971.

Renee was mentioned in Darrill Clements book, Postcards from the Zoo, as were two other females named Jill and Joan. It’s a while since I read it, but from memory Ranee died late 1990’s and had a memorial garden planted in her memory. Once the Elephant Database is working again, I can confirm dates. It currently falls to pieces when you try to run even the simplest of searches.
Click to expand...

Ranee died in 1998.
 
He was very impressive in his prime seeing him in 1977 was a real treat!
 
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