Memorials to individual animals in zoos

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

View attachment 472215 View attachment 472216Here is the memorial for Numar at Cape May, nowadays Rocky sits next to him aswell but I couldn’t find any photos of his.

Thank you for sharing @Jude T, it is quite a nice memorial for "Numar" IMO.

 

[Pertinax]

Really tragic story.

I think the memorial that the zoo installed is great though and is a fitting tribute to the short life of this orangutang.

The statue shows a fully adult male though- at 8 years old Kartiko would not have looked like this.

 

[Mfuwe]

I agree. "Queen of the Kalahari" really got me, haha. (also that her name was Flower Whiskers . . .)

... from Meerkat manor, the documentary. She was leader of the whiskers clan and the “main character” hence the queen title.

 

[GaryA]

The statue shows a fully adult male though- at 8 years old Kartiko would not have looked like this.

Suggest you reread down the thread. The plaque is for Kartiko, the statue not.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

... from Meerkat manor, the documentary. She was leader of the whiskers clan and the “main character” hence the queen title.

So she was originally wild caught ?

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I thought this was quite funny, a bit tongue in cheek and some might find it a bit in bad taste but worth sharing.

 

[Crowthorne]

So she was originally wild caught ?

She lived her entire life in the wild. She was one of the study animals in the large multi-university Kalahari Meerkat Project, and featured in many wildlife documentaries

Flower Whiskers

 

[FBBird]

Perhaps the most unusual memorial to a zoo animal is the plaster cast of a short-lived hippopotamus calf that was born at London Zoo in 1871.

Frank Buckland made a plaster cast of the dead hippopotamus calf and this was displayed in the Hippopotamus House (adjacent to the Giraffe House) for nearly ninety years.
I recall seeing this plaster cast when I was a very young child. It was taken off exhibit when the hippopotamus wing of the Giraffe House was demolished in 1960 as part of the Cotton Terraces development.

It would be nice if it were put on show again.

I too remember that plaster cast, and feel the same way about. For many years there was a dent (covered with glass) in the Giraffe House wall, where a Giraffe had taken a swing at a keeper. That too seems to have disappeared.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

She lived her entire life in the wild. She was one of the study animals in the large multi-university Kalahari Meerkat Project, and featured in many wildlife documentaries

Flower Whiskers

Ok, well that is interesting, I have no idea why there would be a plaque to her in a US zoo then.

Of course some people might find it moving but I myself personally do not find it so and actually it is more than a little bizarre to me.

If they are willing to create plaques for meerkats which are not endangered in the wild then why not for wild individuals of critically endangered species that are the subject of long term field research ?

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

For many years there was a dent (covered with glass) in the Giraffe House wall, where a Giraffe had taken a swing at a keeper. That too seems to have disappeared.

 

[Tim May]

I too remember that plaster cast, and feel the same way about. For many years there was a dent (covered with glass) in the Giraffe House wall, where a Giraffe had taken a swing at a keeper. That too seems to have disappeared.

I also remember the glass-covered dent in the Giraffe House wall; the late Clin Keeling told me it was preserved when the building was renovated but I don't know what became of it.

I can confirm, though, the plaster cast of the hippo calf is definitely still safely stored at the zoo; I have seen it.

 

[Tim May]

And the entrance square by the elephants at Chester is called the Jubilee square after a deceased bull elephant called Jubilee I believe.

The bull Asiatic elephant "Jubilee" was born at Chester Zoo in 1977; the first successful elephant birth in the UK. He died in Belfast Zoo in 2003.

 

[Sheather]

I don't know if he is in the gallery, probably not as he was off display for at least the last decade of life I believe. But this is off their site.

 

[Pertinax]

Suggest you reread down the thread. The plaque is for Kartiko, the statue not.

Mr Wrinkley's original post says 'his statue and plaque' so I presumed it was supposed to be of Kartiko as well. The fact it was put up some years later doesn't alter that, but I suspect in reality its just a generic Orangutan sculpture.

 

[JT]

Mr Wrinkley's original post says 'his statue and plaque' so I presumed it was supposed to be of Kartiko as well. The fact it was put up some years later doesn't alter that, but I suspect in reality its just a generic Orangutan sculpture.

It could also represent what could’ve been and that he’d have looked like that if he’d grown up.

 

[PossumRoach]

The Izmir Zoo has a memorial for PakBahadir, a very famous elephant bull. I died before he was going to be transferred to the newer park.

Pic ture belongs to the Izmir Municipality

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I don't know if he is in the gallery, probably not as he was off display for at least the last decade of life I believe. But this is off their site.

He looks overjoyed with his birthday cake

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The Izmir Zoo has a memorial for PakBahadir, a very famous elephant bull. I died before he was going to be transferred to the newer park.

Pic ture belongs to the Izmir Municipality

Izmir zoo is in Turkey I assume ?

 

[PossumRoach]

Izmir zoo is in Turkey I assume ?

yes

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

yes

Its great that they gave PakBahadir a memorial isn't it ?

I think it shows that they must have cared greatly for this elephant.