Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:08,360
150 years ago, hardly anyone in Europe had ever seen
2
00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,200
a living African elephant,
3
00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:14,840
and then an enormous male arrived.
4
00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:16,600
His name was Jumbo,
5
00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:21,520
and his story is extraordinary and dramatic.
6
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,640
He was rumoured to be largest elephant on the planet
7
00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,520
and his celebrity status took him across the globe.
8
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:36,160
Millions flocked to see him during his lifetime,
9
00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:37,800
and it's said that he inspired
10
00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:39,960
Hollywood movies long after his death.
11
00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:45,760
But contemporary accounts reveal a troubled life
12
00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,760
fuelled by alcohol, with episodes of terrifying violence,
13
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,760
a near mystical relationship with his keeper
14
00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:55,680
and a tragic end that seems hard to believe.
15
00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:01,560
Now, I'm going to look beyond Jumbo's celebrity
16
00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,320
for the real elephant behind the myths.
17
00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,480
How big was he in reality?
18
00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:10,760
And what is the truth behind the mysteries
19
00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:12,960
that surround his tragic death?
20
00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,280
With access to Jumbo's physical remains,
21
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,240
those questions can finally be answered.
22
00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,440
And with the help of a team of scientists,
23
00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,040
elephant experts and conservationists,
24
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,880
I will try to find out how our understanding of elephants
25
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,160
has changed since Jumbo's time.
26
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:39,000
This is the story of the world's first animal superstar.
27
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,560
This is the story of Jumbo.
28
00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,440
In 1882, a unique shipment is about to arrive
29
00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:19,720
here in one of the busiest ports in the world.
30
00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:22,440
On board, in a massive wooden crate,
31
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:27,000
is an animal that has already captured hearts in Britain.
32
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,400
His name is Jumbo
33
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:33,360
and he's now all set to become a superstar -
34
00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:35,840
the most famous animal in the world.
35
00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,000
My investigation into Jumbo's life
36
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,200
begins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
37
00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:00,480
There are elephant skeletons on display here as in many museums
38
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,360
around the world, but what I'm looking for
39
00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:05,080
lies behind the scenes.
40
00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,840
Jumbo's remains were brought here after his death
41
00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,320
and are still among the most treasured specimens
42
00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:13,760
in the collections.
43
00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:22,480
It's hard to think of a more famous animal than Jumbo.
44
00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,920
I mean, we have a lot of famous specimens
45
00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:29,920
in the museum, but it's hard to imagine another specimen
46
00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,680
that carries with it so much history,
47
00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:34,320
so much lore and legend.
48
00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,720
All these bones have been kept in the museum's
49
00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:59,960
special temperature controlled storage unit
50
00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:03,120
for decades, unexamined,
51
00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,000
but now they're being brought out for another look at them.
52
00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:12,720
For the first time in their history,
53
00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,920
the museum has granted access to Jumbo's skeleton
54
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:20,040
for scientific analysis, and I'll be joining an international team
55
00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,000
of researchers as they attempt to answer some of the mysteries
56
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,160
that still surround this giant.
57
00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:32,680
One of the important things about collections
58
00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,320
and the reason the museum has great collections like this,
59
00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:40,560
including Jumbo, is that technologies come about
60
00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,800
that allow you to re-look at these specimens
61
00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,360
in ways you never imagined before.
62
00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,720
Among the team carrying out this first-ever full survey
63
00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:53,760
of Jumbo is Dr Richard Thomas,
64
00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:57,880
a researcher of ancient animal bones from the University of Leicester.
65
00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,240
With him is Professor John Hutchinson,
66
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:04,360
from the Royal Veterinary College,
67
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,400
an authority on locomotion in large land animals.
68
00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:14,000
Finally, Dr Holly Miller from the University of Nottingham,
69
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,520
who will be analysing the chemical content of Jumbo's bones
70
00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:20,720
for clues about his diet and overall health.
71
00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,880
And this is what remains of Jumbo.
72
00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:48,400
There are of course hundreds, if not thousands, of elephant skeletons
73
00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:50,360
in museums around the world,
74
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:54,920
so why should this particular one be of special interest?
75
00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:57,400
Well, when Jumbo was alive,
76
00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:00,760
many people believed that he was the biggest
77
00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:02,960
living land animal on Earth.
78
00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:07,000
Certainly the biggest that anyone had ever seen.
79
00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,160
20 million people came to see him,
80
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:14,400
and after his death, many continued to do so.
81
00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,920
But many mysteries remain.
82
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:20,880
Exactly how big was he
83
00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:27,200
and why did he have terrible fits of rage and violence during the night
84
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:30,920
that led him to demolish the cages in which he was kept?
85
00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:35,000
And, above all, how did he die?
86
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,120
Even that is still a mystery.
87
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,440
While the scientists across the Atlantic begin their study
88
00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,840
of Jumbo's bones, I am looking through the archives
89
00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:51,560
of the London Zoo to try and trace his story
90
00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:55,320
from Africa to Britain and ultimately to America.
91
00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:10,400
This register records every important event at London Zoo
92
00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:15,000
and the entry for June 26th 1865
93
00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,880
notes the arrival of one African elephant.
94
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,120
It was called Jumbo.
95
00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,560
The name in Swahili means "hello".
96
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:31,240
Today, because of this elephant,
97
00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:35,080
the word Jumbo has come to mean something that's extremely large.
98
00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:38,720
But, in fact, Jumbo didn't arrive as a giant.
99
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:39,880
Far from it.
100
00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:43,600
The first image of him here is as a small orphan,
101
00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:44,960
so how did he get here?
102
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,480
During the 19th century, new zoos across Europe and North America
103
00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,040
were looking for spectacular exhibits
104
00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,000
that would attract visitors.
105
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:08,960
Elephants were an obvious choice.
106
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,720
The first to appear were Asian elephants.
107
00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:21,520
They are found in India eastwards to south East Asia
108
00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:26,360
and as far as the visitors to the London Zoo in Victorian times
109
00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,320
were concerned, they were the biggest animals they had ever seen.
110
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,800
But African elephants are much bigger.
111
00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:42,080
In fact, they are the largest living land animals on the planet
112
00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,760
and unlike Asian elephants,
113
00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,200
they have hardly ever been domesticated.
114
00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:56,640
They were once widespread across the continent
115
00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:00,640
and records suggest that Jumbo had been captured somewhere
116
00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:02,520
in the north-east.
117
00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,600
A 19th century traveller exploring the Sudan
118
00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:13,200
has left an account of the brutal way
119
00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:16,400
in which the local people hunted elephants.
120
00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:18,320
They would find a mother and her calf,
121
00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:21,600
chase them until they were both exhausted
122
00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,240
and then spear the mother to death and take the baby.
123
00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:29,000
So, young Jumbo almost certainly would have witnessed
124
00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,120
the death of his mother.
125
00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:32,880
Here.
126
00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:41,480
Hunting is still a huge problem in Africa.
127
00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,080
Adults are killed for their ivory tusks
128
00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:46,920
and they often leave behind young orphans -
129
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,720
motherless babies just like young Jumbo.
130
00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,960
As the first of his kind in a British zoo,
131
00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:02,880
Jumbo was bound to attract a lot of attention,
132
00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:05,600
but his arrival happened to coincide
133
00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,480
with a relatively new technique called photography
134
00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:12,120
and that would help to immortalise him.
135
00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:19,800
Throughout this rich visual record of Jumbo's life,
136
00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:22,800
the image of one man occurs
137
00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,400
again and again and again.
138
00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:31,440
He was a man whose life became totally bound up with Jumbo's.
139
00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:35,440
His name was Matthew Scott, Jumbo's keeper.
140
00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:43,040
Scott was known to be a difficult man with no close friends,
141
00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,000
and he was no expert on elephants,
142
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:50,360
but he did have a deep empathy for animals of all kinds.
143
00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:56,520
Within hours of meeting, man and beast had bonded,
144
00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:00,440
and unusually for a working man of the time, Scott wrote
145
00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:04,040
an account, an autobiography of his life with Jumbo.
146
00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:10,120
This is it. There've been lots of books written about Jumbo,
147
00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,960
but this is by far the most touching and first-hand.
148
00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:19,960
Here's Scott describing his first meeting with Jumbo.
149
00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:24,520
"I thought I never saw a creature so woebegone.
150
00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:26,920
"The poor thing was full of disease,
151
00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:29,280
"which had worked its way through the animal's hide
152
00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:32,000
"and had almost eaten out its eyes."
153
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:39,520
Scott now set out on his mission to raise the young elephant.
154
00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:43,440
It was the beginning of a truly remarkable relationship.
155
00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:48,200
Scott had never cared for a young elephant before
156
00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:52,480
and it must have seemed a daunting task.
157
00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:55,520
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya
158
00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:58,840
knows exactly how difficult it is.
159
00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:03,120
Head keeper Edwin Lusichi, like Scott,
160
00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:07,000
is caring for a new orphan who has just arrived.
161
00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:12,200
This elephant close to me is called Musiara.
162
00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:14,760
He was rescued from the Masai Mara.
163
00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:19,360
He was found stuck in the mud when he was only about two months old
164
00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:21,800
and he seems to have stayed there for quite some time,
165
00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,880
because he was very skinny, very thin and very weak,
166
00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:29,320
a sign that he had been without the mother for quite some time.
167
00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,680
And we hope for the best for him.
168
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:40,560
Musiara is so traumatised by his experience,
169
00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:45,000
a keeper will have to stay by his side 24 hours a day.
170
00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,280
There's no quick easy fix when raising orphaned elephants.
171
00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:54,000
I mean, you're in for the long term.
172
00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:59,040
Some arrive in perfectly good shape,
173
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:03,360
but the majority have had a dramatic story before they get to us.
174
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,400
The first step is straightforward physical care,
175
00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:13,880
but they need more than that.
176
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:19,520
Elephants are highly social.
177
00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:23,400
Musiara, like Jumbo, needs what he would have received
178
00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:28,000
from his elephant family - constant company, touching and love.
179
00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,320
They need that emotional support.
180
00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:39,200
Elephants are all about love and family
181
00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,320
and that is what our orphans have been robbed of,
182
00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:46,680
and one has to very, very quickly plug that gap
183
00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:50,080
and it really is the keepers at this early stage
184
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,480
where that strong bond is formed.
185
00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,480
Matthew Scott's autobiography makes it clear
186
00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:06,000
that he instinctively gave Jumbo the emotional support he needed.
187
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:15,440
"I undertook to be his doctor, his nurse and general servant.
188
00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,560
"I watched and nursed him night and day
189
00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:21,680
"with all the care and affection of a mother,
190
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:25,000
"if it were possible for a man to do such a thing."
191
00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:32,840
His approach clearly worked, because six months later,
192
00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:35,280
Jumbo looked like a different elephant
193
00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:38,080
and could at last be displayed to the public.
194
00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:42,920
By the time he was six,
195
00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,520
he was beginning to carry children on rides around the zoo,
196
00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,960
and they apparently rewarded him with sticky buns.
197
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,520
Lots of sticky buns.
198
00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,640
Jumbo quickly became hugely popular.
199
00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:59,320
Even Queen Victoria's children took rides on his back.
200
00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:02,360
But had this once wild African elephant
201
00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,000
really grown into a gentle giant?
202
00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:11,600
As Jumbo grew, he was moved from his stable next to the giraffe house
203
00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:13,440
into a larger enclosure.
204
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,880
But London Zoo's records from the time tell us that,
205
00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,320
behind the scenes, all was not well.
206
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:25,160
Jumbo's calmness during the day was in sharp contrast
207
00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:27,080
to his behaviour at night.
208
00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:31,360
Then he would become possessed by terrifyingly violent rages
209
00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:34,960
in which he would smash the timbers of his enclosure,
210
00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:36,880
and he did that so regularly
211
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,720
that carpenters would have to be called in again and again
212
00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:42,440
in order to make repairs.
213
00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:45,800
Apparently, he had a curious Jekyll and Hyde character
214
00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:48,960
and one that would persist during his time in London.
215
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:56,280
Remarkably, Matthew Scott makes no real mention of Jumbo's rages.
216
00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:00,520
But evidence for these violent outbursts can be readily seen
217
00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:02,400
in the photos of the time.
218
00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,960
Male African elephants grow the longest of all tusks,
219
00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:14,960
yet in nearly every photo,
220
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:19,240
Jumbo's tusks seem small or even non-existent.
221
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:28,800
The head of London Zoo at the time, Abraham Bartlett,
222
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:32,360
has left an account of what happened to Jumbo's tusks.
223
00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,920
During these terrifying nocturnal rages,
224
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:43,320
Jumbo damaged not only his enclosure, but himself
225
00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:47,840
on one such occasion as Bartlett records in his book.
226
00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:52,200
"Jumbo broke both his tusks by driving them
227
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:55,120
"through the ironwork of his den.
228
00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,800
"The tusks were broken off within his mouth
229
00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:01,280
"probably close to his upper jaw bone."
230
00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:03,960
And then when they did grow again,
231
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,280
Jumbo ground them down against the stonework.
232
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,280
But what could be the cause of his night-time outbursts
233
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,880
and terrible acts of self-harm?
234
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:21,200
Maybe his bones back in New York could contain some clues.
235
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:26,040
I join Richard and John as they examine
236
00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:30,720
the most impressive part of Jumbo's remains - his huge skull.
237
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:36,640
One of the first things we see when we look at his skull
238
00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,280
is just how malformed his teeth are.
239
00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:43,720
- Here.
- Yeah. I mean, we can see this tooth here is really curved
240
00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,600
in this direction, and on the other side, it's curved again.
241
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:49,600
They should have been straight, Richard?
242
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:51,880
Yeah, you wouldn't expect to see the tooth bent
243
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,880
in this kind of way in a normal, healthy elephant.
244
00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:57,760
We can think of elephant teeth a bit like conveyor belts,
245
00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:00,880
so they have six teeth, but only ever one of them
246
00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,680
will be in wear on each side at any one time
247
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:07,720
and another one will be coming in underneath and behind it
248
00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,080
to replace it at the time which that tooth falls out.
249
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,720
When that tooth doesn't wear down enough,
250
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:16,280
what happens is it gets stuck in the mouth
251
00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:20,400
and it stays there, but the other tooth carries on developing
252
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:23,560
and moving up behind it, and because it's softer,
253
00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:25,680
because it hasn't formed properly,
254
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:29,200
what happens is it hits the tooth that's impacted
255
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,120
and bends, bends out of shape.
256
00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:34,360
You can see right here that there's this gap.
257
00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:36,920
All that sweet food and other inappropriate diet
258
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,840
that Jumbo was having could have gotten stuck
259
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,400
and even gotten into the root and the gum
260
00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:44,720
where infection could have got started,
261
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,240
or at least inflammation. Probably pretty painful, I would think.
262
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:50,360
So, Jumbo had terrible toothache?
263
00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:52,240
Yeah. I'm afraid so.
264
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:53,760
Ah, poor old thing.
265
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:04,480
In the wild, African elephants adapt their diet to the changing seasons.
266
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,080
During the wet season,
267
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:10,600
grass can make up 90% of what they eat, but in drier months,
268
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:14,200
they will browse on twigs and leaves and even bark.
269
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:18,520
Their ridged teeth help grind down this more fibrous food,
270
00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:20,800
making it easier to digest.
271
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:24,960
But what of Jumbo?
272
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:30,440
Was his diet in captivity really as poor as his deformed teeth suggest?
273
00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:44,360
Dr Holly Miller, from the University of Nottingham, may help answer that.
274
00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:46,960
By taking samples from Jumbo's bones,
275
00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:50,440
particularly the femur or leg bone and the ribs,
276
00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,880
she hopes to discover more about his diet.
277
00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,640
These tiny samples could tell us a lot
278
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:01,640
about the food Jumbo was eating
279
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:05,280
and reveal whether or not that affected his overall health.
280
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,840
Jumbo has some interesting stories to tell.
281
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,160
So, his femur results, that gives us the diet,
282
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,320
a broad idea of the diet for about 20 years,
283
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:25,400
and the ribs a lot shorter period of that,
284
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:26,880
maybe ten, five to ten years.
285
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:28,960
So we're seeing his diet in London
286
00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:32,040
and some of his diet in America, possibly,
287
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:36,400
and we're seeing largely a very stable diet in that period.
288
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,360
Does that match with the suggestion that his diet
289
00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:42,320
was actually almost entirely hay and penny buns?
290
00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:46,360
Yes, we are definitely seeing some suggestion that he's not getting
291
00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:49,240
the variety of diet that other elephants should.
292
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,800
What they should have in their diet is a lot of browse.
293
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:56,000
They use their trunks to access the top of trees
294
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,760
and they get twigs and bark which helps them
295
00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:00,040
break down the diet.
296
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,200
The pathologies we saw with his teeth, they were coming through
297
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,600
in the wrong angle and they were soft.
298
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,640
They're not hardening because they're not being used
299
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,840
in the right way, they're not being used
300
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:15,760
to grind down the right sort of food.
301
00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,560
So it seems that elephants, just like humans,
302
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:23,240
can suffer severe dental problems if they don't have the right diet.
303
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,800
But was this having an effect on Jumbo's behaviour?
304
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:35,800
Anyone's who's had toothache knows that it seems worse at night
305
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:37,680
when you have no distractions,
306
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,920
so maybe this is one of the explanations
307
00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:46,320
for Jumbo's terrifying nocturnal rages,
308
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:48,840
and maybe, too, it supports the story
309
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,080
that Matthew Scott, his keeper,
310
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:54,760
used to feed him lots of whisky in order to calm him.
311
00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,360
Scott, apparently, had no family or close friends
312
00:22:01,360 --> 00:22:03,920
and he totally devoted himself to Jumbo,
313
00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:07,440
even to the extent that the two of them would often drink
314
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:08,800
late into the night.
315
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,680
But Scott's unorthodox methods to help pacify Jumbo
316
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:17,560
do little to calm his boss's nerves.
317
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:21,240
Abraham Bartlett worries that instead of attacking
318
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:25,000
his cage at night, Jumbo, by day, might turn on the public,
319
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:26,480
including children.
320
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:35,400
As a precaution, he purchases a gun in case he has to shoot Jumbo.
321
00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:43,680
Bartlett becomes convinced that Jumbo is suffering
322
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:48,760
not from toothache, but from musth, a natural condition periodically
323
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,400
affecting young male elephants when they become sexually mature.
324
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:03,080
During musth, testosterone levels in males can increase 60-fold
325
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:06,240
and they become extremely aggressive.
326
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:10,360
The temporal glands on the head behind the eyes swell and leak,
327
00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:14,560
and the elephants, as they walk, discharge an almost continuous
328
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,440
dribble of urine, creating a scent trail.
329
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,960
Until recently, there was little research on young male elephants.
330
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,480
Dr Vicki Fishlock is one of a team of researchers
331
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:32,440
who've been studying males in Kenya's Amboseli National Park
332
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,040
and she's now beginning to understand
333
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:37,120
what drives their behaviour.
334
00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:39,400
Was Abraham Bartlett right about musth
335
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:41,720
being the cause of Jumbo's aggression?
336
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:52,160
So, males in musth are really signalling
337
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,000
their competitive ability,
338
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,080
they are really signalling that they're in great shape
339
00:23:58,080 --> 00:23:59,800
and that females should mate with them
340
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:01,480
and that other males should look out.
341
00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:05,640
Musth is really a way of saying,
342
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,880
"I'm here, I'm big and I'm on a mission."
343
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,440
I usually say they're cruising for girls and trouble.
344
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,000
In the wild, musth usually starts
345
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,000
when a male elephant is in his mid to late 20s.
346
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,560
But in captivity, musth can begin much earlier,
347
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:31,320
and, indeed, Jumbo was 21 when his night rages intensified.
348
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,720
Could his heightened aggression come from musth?
349
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:39,000
Vicki is not convinced.
350
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:44,200
Musth is really, for elephants, a state about dominance,
351
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,040
and establishing dominance.
352
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:50,080
So, if Jumbo's rages had been associated with musth,
353
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:52,880
you would expect that would be directed not just
354
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,840
to his physical surroundings, but to his keepers as well,
355
00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:00,120
who were also controlling his behaviour in some way.
356
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:03,840
So, you'd expect him to have directed some aggression
357
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,120
towards the humans around him.
358
00:25:07,120 --> 00:25:10,240
But there is nothing in the historical records
359
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,720
to suggest that Jumbo was ever violent towards people.
360
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,560
So, was Abraham Bartlett mistaken
361
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,560
for blaming Jumbo's increasing aggression on musth?
362
00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:27,360
Could there perhaps be another explanation?
363
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:39,200
Work in the United States with retired zoo and circus elephants
364
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:40,920
may provide the answer.
365
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:44,120
Sookie, trunk here.
366
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,880
The behavioural problems that afflicted Jumbo
367
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,640
more than 100 years ago are all too familiar to carers
368
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,920
who work with the African elephants here
369
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,200
in the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
370
00:26:05,360 --> 00:26:08,480
The sanctuary was created to provide a home
371
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,920
for old or unwanted elephants across America.
372
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:16,360
The elephants themselves had been captured as orphans in Africa
373
00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:20,440
and then kept isolated or locked up, like Jumbo.
374
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,880
When they first arrive here, many are extremely agitated
375
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,040
and aggressive, and evidence of self-harm
376
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:32,440
is all too obvious.
377
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:37,400
Their tusks worn down by repeated rubbing against their den walls.
378
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:45,600
The similarities to Jumbo are clear.
379
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:52,760
But there is one big difference - these elephants are all female.
380
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:58,800
So, clearly their aggressiveness cannot be due
381
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:00,720
to a surge of male hormones.
382
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,960
In fact, their behaviour quickly improves as they settle in
383
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,800
and build friendships with other elephants in the sanctuary.
384
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:18,200
We now know that elephants are extremely social animals,
385
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,360
they need the company of their own kind.
386
00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:25,480
And we also know that they're extremely intelligent,
387
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,680
they easily get bored.
388
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,640
So keeping a single elephant in captivity
389
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:35,200
is not a way to rear a happy and healthy elephant.
390
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,440
To visitors to London Zoo in the 19th century,
391
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:44,720
Jumbo did indeed appear to be a happy elephant,
392
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:48,320
but they had no idea of his aggressive darker side.
393
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,960
Bartlett kept that a secret.
394
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,520
And back at the museum in New York,
395
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,040
there is evidence that his life in captivity
396
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:00,680
was also damaging his physical health.
397
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,640
When we look at the knee, we see all sorts of kind of changes in the bone
398
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,040
that we wouldn't really expect to see in an elephant of his age.
399
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,280
Remember, Jumbo's only 24 and still growing.
400
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,560
But what we see actually when we start looking at the bone surface,
401
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:15,760
we can see it's really roughened
402
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,240
and you'll see these extra lumps of bone that shouldn't be there.
403
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:20,760
You've got them on this side
404
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,560
and John's got them on the side of the tibia here.
405
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,120
Yeah, there's some bumps invading into the joint surface itself,
406
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:28,800
which is not a good sign.
407
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,720
And what these are is, these are lumps of bone
408
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,360
at the point where ligaments are attaching to the joints,
409
00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:38,040
and the bone is adapting to try and compensate
410
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,600
for all those stresses he's experiencing.
411
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:44,400
For a 24-year-old elephant, it's kind of like a 24-year-old person
412
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:46,760
having similar kinds of joint problems.
413
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,720
Well, we know Jumbo carried loads of people, certainly children,
414
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,360
I think even adults, could that have produced this consequence?
415
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,080
Sure, yeah, loading them up with people and walking them around
416
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,120
on a hard surface and not giving them the right diet,
417
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,600
all these factors could spiral together
418
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:09,040
and give Jumbo problems like these joint inflammation problems.
419
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:13,320
So, far from being bad-tempered with his nocturnal rages,
420
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,760
it sounds as though he was extraordinarily patient
421
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,680
day after day after day to carry passengers,
422
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,120
which is what the zoo did.
423
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,680
There is no doubt that Jumbo was held in deep affection
424
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,680
by the general public, but his bones suggest that he was
425
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:34,480
in effect being harmed by those who adored him most.
426
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:40,920
The stresses and strains of captivity combined with a poor diet
427
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,600
and hundreds of rides at London Zoo created symptoms
428
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,240
usually associated with old age.
429
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:51,160
His bones are more like an elephant in its 40s or 50s
430
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:52,480
than in its 20s.
431
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:57,720
There's nothing in the zoo's records suggesting that they had concerns
432
00:29:57,720 --> 00:29:58,920
about Jumbo's health.
433
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:03,840
But the head of the zoo, Abraham Bartlett,
434
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:05,640
was still extremely worried
435
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,760
about Jumbo's fits of uncontrollable violence.
436
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,160
As a result, he makes a shocking decision -
437
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,280
to try and sell the popular elephant,
438
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:19,920
and he hears of a possible buyer,
439
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,080
the famous American circus showman, PT Barnum.
440
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,640
News that Barnum was looking for an African elephant
441
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,960
reached the London Zoo in the form of a telegram which said,
442
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,920
"What was the lowest price that they would accept
443
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:35,800
"for their African elephant?"
444
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:40,280
Here was a marvellous opportunity for Bartlett to get rid
445
00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:45,600
of his problematic elephant and he cabled back £2,000.
446
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,920
That's over £150,000 in today's money,
447
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:53,960
an enormous sum, and this register shows that it was accepted.
448
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:00,280
PT Barnum was the owner
449
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,920
of the popular Greatest Show on Earth touring circus,
450
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,960
which already featured 20 Asian elephants.
451
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:08,600
He was an astute businessman,
452
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:12,000
who had made his fortune exhibiting fake curiosities
453
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:17,520
and he wanted a star attraction to draw in crowds to his new circus.
454
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,720
Barnum sent his head elephant keeper to collect Jumbo
455
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,520
and we know how difficult a task that proved to be,
456
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,920
because newspapers of the time reported in detail
457
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:32,920
on this highly public event.
458
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:42,360
As crowds gathered, he attached chains round the elephant's neck.
459
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,160
Jumbo ripped them off.
460
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,680
They attached more chains and eventually got him
461
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:51,640
to the mouth of the crate, whereupon Jumbo, sensing a trap,
462
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:55,840
simply lowered himself onto his stomach and sat there,
463
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,880
and nothing anybody could do would make him budge.
464
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,960
Both Bartlett and Barnum began to suspect that his keeper Scott
465
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,440
was using some form of secret language with Jumbo
466
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,280
to make him unwilling to leave the zoo.
467
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:14,200
Could that be possible?
468
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,840
Could man and elephant have talked to each other?
469
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,640
Today, we know that elephants use a variety of ways to communicate,
470
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:27,440
but it's taken decades of field research to decode
471
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,280
the many sounds and signals that they use.
472
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,360
Despite having poor eyesight,
473
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:43,640
elephants will use visual signals to communicate when near each other.
474
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,960
Their ears, trunks and tails can all be used
475
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,320
to indicate emotional moods.
476
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:53,840
Come on. Back here. Go.
477
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:57,040
In recent years, scientists have come to discover
478
00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:00,240
that elephants are even able to understand a gesture
479
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:02,960
that we tend to think of as uniquely human -
480
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:04,000
pointing.
481
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,320
Not only that, it's been shown that they can distinguish
482
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:10,280
between different human voices.
483
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:15,640
So, was Matthew Scott secretly telling Jumbo to stay put?
484
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,120
I'm absolutely sure that in a situation
485
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,640
where you have a one-on-one relationship,
486
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:24,360
like Jumbo had with his keeper,
487
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:28,120
the trust that gets built up enables two-way communication.
488
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:34,400
And what happens next seems to support this.
489
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,640
Barnum offered to take on Scott as Jumbo's keeper,
490
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,360
to go with his beloved elephant to America,
491
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:45,360
and almost immediately after this deal is agreed, Jumbo cooperated.
492
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:53,280
As the frenzy about Jumbo's departure reached its peak,
493
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:59,680
20,000 people a day assembled at the zoo to protest about it.
494
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:04,720
A court case was filed to try and prevent the bargain.
495
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:08,640
Queen Victoria was said to be extremely upset.
496
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:10,720
But the deal had been done.
497
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:16,760
On the 22nd of March 1882, in the middle of the night,
498
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:18,840
crowds of onlookers assembled
499
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:23,240
to watch Jumbo being pulled to the docks by 12 horses,
500
00:34:23,240 --> 00:34:28,160
with Scott standing, stroking his elephant's trunk in reassurance.
501
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,640
Jumbo arrived at five o'clock in the morning
502
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,200
down here at St Katherine's Dock.
503
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,600
He was loaded onto a barge and then taken out to the Assyrian Monarch,
504
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,160
the British ship that was going to take him across the Atlantic.
505
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,640
He drank some beer, followed by a whisky chaser,
506
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,040
and then the world's most famous elephant
507
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:03,160
was ready for his departure.
508
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,120
As the ship slowly sailed down the Thames,
509
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:10,280
thousands lined its banks to wish him well.
510
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:16,280
The publicity surrounding his departure had not gone unnoticed
511
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,800
on the other side of the Atlantic,
512
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:22,800
and would ensure that a huge crowd would be waiting to receive him.
513
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,080
It was a two-week journey across the ocean to New York City
514
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,800
and it must have been a horrible trip for the animal.
515
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,880
It seems that, at times, he was a little seasick
516
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,000
and had to be kept calm with alcohol.
517
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,080
But over in America, Jumbo-mania was already erupting,
518
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:52,920
and his new owner, PT Barnum, was keen to fuel this excitement.
519
00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,240
When the Assyrian Monarch reached the Hudson River,
520
00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:03,920
Barnum chartered a small boat to take him out to the ship
521
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:09,120
so that he could see his purchase for the very first time.
522
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,480
Was it really as big as he had hoped?
523
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,200
Barnum declared, without hesitation,
524
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:19,840
that this was the biggest African elephant in the world,
525
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:21,600
whether that was true or not.
526
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:33,360
To discover how big Jumbo really was, we can turn to his bones again.
527
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:37,000
The team will use his leg bone as a starting point.
528
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,440
So, one of the things we can do is we can take the femur,
529
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,080
- so we can take the leg bone...
- This bone?
- This bone here, yeah.
530
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:48,720
..and we can measure the length.
531
00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:52,160
Because this is the bone that is the longest bone in the elephant's body
532
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:56,600
and it gives us a good indication of how tall Jumbo might have been.
533
00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:58,200
So, how long is it?
534
00:36:58,200 --> 00:36:59,720
107 centimetres.
535
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,440
So the circumference is...
536
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:09,600
..39 centimetres.
537
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:13,160
We can estimate his weight at around 6,000 kilograms -
538
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:16,320
that's not obese for his height.
539
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:21,080
Jumbo is measuring in at 3.2 metres tall.
540
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:22,880
And we know how old he was?
541
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,360
And we know how old he is and that's really, really important.
542
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,600
We know he's 24 at the time of his death.
543
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:33,080
What we can establish is what a normal wild African elephant
544
00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,520
should be at shoulder height at that age.
545
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,560
- And that would be about 2.7 metres.
- Wow!
546
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:40,680
- So 3.2 metres...
- So he's 3.2 metres?
547
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:44,960
That's pretty tall. Actually, that's 20% different.
548
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:46,320
That's an enormous difference.
549
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:50,920
- Yeah, Jumbo was taller than he should be for his age.
- Wow.
550
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:52,040
That's surprising.
551
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:54,760
Jumbo is about 20% taller.
552
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:58,000
Yeah. 3.2 metres is what he really was at the shoulder
553
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,720
and instead what he should have been for a wild African elephant
554
00:38:01,720 --> 00:38:05,200
at 24 years of age would be more like 2.7 metres.
555
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,840
- Really?
- So he's...
- He's a leggy elephant for his age.
556
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:14,400
So, Jumbo's height was around 10 feet 6 inches,
557
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:18,880
or 3.2 metres, at the time of his death.
558
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:20,760
Evidence from wild elephants
559
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:25,960
suggests that they can reach up to 13 feet, or 4 metres, in height
560
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,160
and will weigh almost 7,000 kilograms.
561
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,400
But his leg bone tells us more.
562
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:38,520
This...zig-zag line here, this crack,
563
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:42,640
tells us, I assume, that he was still growing?
564
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:44,120
Yes, absolutely right.
565
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,600
So, the ends of the bone are separate
566
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:48,240
from the main body of the bone
567
00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:52,000
when mammals are growing, and eventually they will unite
568
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:53,880
when the animal reaches its full size,
569
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:56,560
but we can see here... Because this crack is still open,
570
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:58,880
we can see that Jumbo is still growing.
571
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:02,360
Male African elephants continue to grow until they're 40,
572
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:06,640
so Jumbo had another 16 years of growing.
573
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,880
So, although he wasn't quite as tall as Barnum said he was,
574
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:15,040
this animal had the potential of being exceptionally big.
575
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:17,120
Yeah, he could've been a record-breaker
576
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,240
if he had had that 16 extra years to grow.
577
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:27,800
Jumbo's leg shows us that he was indeed a very big elephant.
578
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,120
In fact, he was bigger than you would expect
579
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,640
for an elephant of his age.
580
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:38,600
He wasn't as big as Barnum claimed, but he was still growing,
581
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,960
and he could have actually matched that claim, had he lived.
582
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:49,800
But then, as Jumbo tours North America with the circus,
583
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:52,200
there is a major change.
584
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:53,600
TRAIN WHISTLES
585
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,720
With 20 other elephants to keep him company,
586
00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:01,240
Jumbo has a lot more stimulation
587
00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:04,720
and there are no accounts of the night rages he suffered in London.
588
00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:10,560
And, of course, Matthew Scott, his keeper from London Zoo,
589
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:12,560
is by his side throughout.
590
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,440
But what about Jumbo's health at this time?
591
00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:26,040
The research team has another find to show me -
592
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,240
a rather gruesome piece of Jumbo's remains.
593
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:41,000
- So, this rather extraordinary relic is actually Jumbo's tail.
- Oh.
594
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,960
It's actually a really key part of the Jumbo puzzle
595
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,600
from Tufts University in Massachusetts,
596
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:51,040
where they held Jumbo's stuffed body after he died.
597
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:53,560
But, unfortunately, that was lost in a fire,
598
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:55,920
but we still have the remarkable tail.
599
00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:01,840
And what we have is these hairs, some very thick and some very thin.
600
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,440
The thinner ones are new growth.
601
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:08,160
We can take some samples of these finer hairs
602
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:11,400
and one of the thicker, longer-growing hairs
603
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:16,840
so we get a nice snapshot of Jumbo's diet almost right before he died.
604
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:18,360
Who would have thought it?
605
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:23,240
While Holly analyses the chemical content of Jumbo's tail,
606
00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:27,920
Richard and John discover something unusual about Jumbo's hip bone.
607
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:29,680
Never seen this - both sides.
608
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:32,560
It's both sides and it's also the same layering effect.
609
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:36,160
You've got the...sort of older, remodelled bone underneath
610
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:40,200
and you've got this layer of active new bone forming on the top.
611
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:42,520
Really, really very pronounced.
612
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,880
Huh. That's a lot of inflammation.
613
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:45,960
Oh, it's incredible.
614
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:49,560
- VOICEOVER:
- He's got so many signs of stress and strain-related injuries -
615
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:51,840
they must have been incredibly painful for him,
616
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:54,320
but may have reflected the use to which he was put,
617
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:56,880
both in London and in a circus in America.
618
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,480
- Big patch of bone.
- Yeah, huge, huge.
619
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:03,320
Could these signs of inflammation indicate that Jumbo's health
620
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:05,120
was in serious decline?
621
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:07,200
Never seen anything like that. Does it go around?
622
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:09,680
Holly has now had time to look at the chemical clues
623
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:12,520
in the hair samples from Jumbo's tail,
624
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:16,240
and of particular interest is the amount of nitrogen,
625
00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:19,280
an element that's crucial to the repair of the body.
626
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:24,440
Jumbo's nitrogen values are odd
627
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:27,840
when compared to other elephants in other circumstances,
628
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,000
and we can see that Jumbo is the highest of all these here.
629
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,320
- By a long way.
- By quite a long way, yes.
630
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:36,920
So, elephants can reach these levels
631
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:40,360
when they're stressed, but it only happens seasonally,
632
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:42,480
when they're not getting much from their diet.
633
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,160
You say "stressed" - that doesn't mean stress on the body,
634
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:47,280
it means something to do with the diet.
635
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:48,560
Physiologically stressed -
636
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:50,880
their bodies aren't getting necessarily what they need
637
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:52,320
from their environment.
638
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:54,280
And if we think about what we saw
639
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:57,680
where he was laying down all that new bone in his pelvis -
640
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:01,400
to create new bone in your body, you need an awful lot of protein,
641
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:04,800
so he would have been taking all of that from his diet.
642
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:09,120
He's also, we think, at the end probably quite sick.
643
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,440
We have some written records that suggest that he was unwell
644
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:16,680
towards the end with some sort of wasting disease, potentially.
645
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:21,680
Jumbo's body must have been trying desperately to extract
646
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:25,120
as much nitrogen as it could from his diet
647
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,480
to help repair the bone in his hip.
648
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,760
These injuries were likely related to his treatment in captivity,
649
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:37,680
and it seems that, as a result, Jumbo was losing weight.
650
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,600
There is little doubt that he must have been suffering.
651
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:48,640
But that didn't stop his American owner, PT Barnum,
652
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:52,320
from finding new ways to promote his biggest elephant.
653
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,920
And a remarkable opportunity soon arose.
654
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:06,280
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges
655
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,360
in the United States.
656
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,480
It was, in fact, opened in 1883,
657
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,600
the year after Jumbo arrived in America
658
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:20,160
and, almost immediately, an accident on it led to the death of 12 people.
659
00:44:23,720 --> 00:44:27,360
So, to squash any rumours about the bridge's safety,
660
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:31,440
the authorities agreed to an unusual publicity stunt.
661
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,000
On the 17th of May 1884,
662
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:48,360
thousands of people lined these banks to see 20 elephants,
663
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:52,360
led by Jumbo, marching across the bridge.
664
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:54,280
What a sight it must have been.
665
00:44:55,480 --> 00:45:00,000
Scott, Jumbo's keeper, was nervous about the whole event.
666
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,480
This is what he writes about it.
667
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,440
"When Jumbo put his foot down on the bridge,
668
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:10,320
"the bridge rebounded after the shock given by his foot.
669
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,120
"The rebound was met by his second footstep,
670
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,480
"and there was a great vibration caused by it.
671
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:19,360
"I assure my reader that I was thankful
672
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:21,760
"when we arrived on the Brooklyn side."
673
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:31,520
Although Jumbo goes back to touring with the rest of the circus,
674
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,040
all is not well.
675
00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:40,640
It seems the bone damage to Jumbo's leg
676
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:43,720
is becoming a problem in his day-to-day life.
677
00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:48,760
Not long after the parade across Brooklyn Bridge,
678
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:51,960
an associate of Barnum's reports in a letter
679
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:55,320
that an ailing Jumbo could no longer lie down.
680
00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,080
That doesn't stop Barnum,
681
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:02,880
who's keen to keep the circus travelling with his prize elephant.
682
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,480
In September 1885,
683
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,920
the circus train crosses the border into Canada
684
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,200
on what should be a routine tour.
685
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:23,080
TRAIN HORN HONKS
686
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:29,680
I'm keen to follow their journey,
687
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:32,320
because the accounts of what happened next
688
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,480
are shocking and tragic.
689
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,920
In the 1880s, St Thomas, Ontario is the perfect stop
690
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,120
for Barnum & Bailey's Circus.
691
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:51,800
It's the central hub for 26 different railways
692
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:54,960
that converged here from all over North America.
693
00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:00,400
On the day when the circus comes to town,
694
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,600
Jumbo is once again the main attraction,
695
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:06,480
drawing crowds from miles around.
696
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:12,240
By the late evening, the show is over.
697
00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:16,160
The tents are being taken down, the performers are packing up
698
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:18,800
and the animals are being led down to the train.
699
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:22,640
Jumbo and a small elephant called Tom Thumb
700
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:24,920
are the last to be loaded
701
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:29,400
and, as Matthew Scott leads them towards their boxcar,
702
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:33,480
a freight train comes thundering down the track towards them.
703
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,720
Reports of what happens next differ.
704
00:47:38,720 --> 00:47:44,080
Some eyewitness accounts record Jumbo running away from the train,
705
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,360
but, soon after, Barnum claims the opposite.
706
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,560
He declares Jumbo's death "a great heroic act",
707
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:56,400
telling reporters that the large elephant
708
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:58,960
had run head-first into the train,
709
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:01,920
sacrificing his own life to save his keeper
710
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:04,520
and Tom Thumb, the smaller elephant.
711
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:12,240
This image, based on Barnum's account of Jumbo's head-on crash,
712
00:48:12,240 --> 00:48:14,760
was to be published again and again.
713
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:20,440
So, what is the truth?
714
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,480
What actually happened on that railroad in St Thomas?
715
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:32,480
The research team has been looking over Jumbo's bones
716
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:34,320
for signs of injury.
717
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:39,040
Now that you've seen the entire skeleton,
718
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,280
is there anything we can deduce
719
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:44,080
about the way in which he met his end, his death?
720
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:46,840
Our first thought was we might find some evidence of trauma
721
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:51,760
in his skeleton that might relate to the impact of the train accident.
722
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:55,160
So we've looked at the skeleton for evidence of fractures,
723
00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:58,600
and we have found no signs of any bone fractures
724
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:01,680
that affected either his skull or his pelvis.
725
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:03,200
Amazing.
726
00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:05,760
BELL TOLLS
727
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:11,960
So the exact details of Jumbo's death are still rather puzzling.
728
00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:17,000
While the rest of the world may have forgotten Jumbo's story,
729
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:21,000
in the town where he died, it's a proud part of their history.
730
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:26,720
The Elgin County Museum is almost a shrine to Jumbo's memory,
731
00:49:26,720 --> 00:49:29,160
and I'm hoping its curator, Mike Baker,
732
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:33,360
will have some clues to help explain exactly how Jumbo died.
733
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,360
This group of things that were found in his stomach
734
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:40,400
while the skin and the bones are being prepared for mounting -
735
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,920
there's a little miniature pig at the back,
736
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:44,920
which is actually a match safe,
737
00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:47,160
a charm bracelet, a button,
738
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,000
a collar stud and a tooth...
739
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,680
- LAUGHING:
- I don't want to think about how he got a tooth!
740
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,240
But they're all part of the many, many things
741
00:49:54,240 --> 00:49:57,520
they found in Jumbo's stomach, including quite a few coins.
742
00:49:57,520 --> 00:49:59,840
- Coins?
- Yes, maybe as many as 300.
743
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:04,200
Mostly pennies. Pennies that I think were supposed to have gone to Scott
744
00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:08,960
as payment for a ride, and then not quite making it to Scott.
745
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:11,080
Jumbo would have grabbed them with his trunk,
746
00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:15,440
cos I think he was a bit of a kleptomaniac with that trunk.
747
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:17,120
And these? What are these?
748
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:20,200
Well, these appear to be photographs of the locomotive
749
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:21,560
that collided with him.
750
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,120
- The very one?
- That brought about his death, yeah.
751
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:25,880
Not too many years later.
752
00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:27,720
And the most interesting feature
753
00:50:27,720 --> 00:50:30,880
is the little tin elephant that someone has cut out,
754
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:34,240
- to say, "Yes, this is the locomotive that got Jumbo."
- Really?
755
00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:36,440
Not sure why they're proud of that,
756
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:38,640
but they were keen to mark it anyway.
757
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:44,880
Among all this memorabilia
758
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:48,760
is a photograph taken just after Jumbo's death.
759
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:58,120
This is a much-enlarged version
760
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:00,640
of the photo that you often see of poor, dead Jumbo.
761
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:03,520
It's taken about a day after the accident.
762
00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:05,240
It's Scott at his head
763
00:51:05,240 --> 00:51:09,520
and one of the owners of the circus, Hutchinson, lying against him.
764
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:11,840
And it's interesting to see in this photograph...
765
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:16,960
Now that it's blown up, you can see a series of abrasions on his hide
766
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:20,720
and it matches up very nicely with the one good graphic
767
00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:22,680
from soon after the collision.
768
00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:29,120
Mike has come across an image of Jumbo that I've not seen before.
769
00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:32,800
It was discovered in an antique print gallery in Washington,
770
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:35,680
and is now on loan to the museum,
771
00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:39,120
and it is the final piece of the Jumbo jigsaw.
772
00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:46,800
It's probably the best depiction of the actual collision with Jumbo.
773
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:49,360
This was done by an artist possibly on the site
774
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:51,640
about three days after the collision.
775
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:54,800
It matches very nicely with the photographic evidence,
776
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,680
and you can see the engine coming up behind Jumbo,
777
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:00,960
so causing the abrasions that you can see in the enlarged photograph.
778
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:04,000
It's the same point of contact.
779
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:08,560
So here is Matthew Scott, having failed to signal to the locomotive.
780
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:11,600
That is the circus train with the boxcar
781
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:13,960
- that Jumbo was going to get into...
- Yep.
782
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:18,720
..and the locomotive has outrun him and hit him in the rear,
783
00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:21,680
- and that's the end of poor Jumbo.
- Exactly.
784
00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:24,520
- Not what Barnum said.
- No, not at all.
785
00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:28,080
So Barnum's story was a complete invention.
786
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,960
Pure bunkum, as you would probably say.
787
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:32,280
DAVID CHUCKLES
788
00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:39,160
With no evidence of fractures on Jumbo's bones,
789
00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:43,600
it seems the most likely cause of death was internal bleeding.
790
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:46,720
So it's unlikely that Jumbo died instantly,
791
00:52:46,720 --> 00:52:51,400
giving Scott time to say goodbye to his much-loved elephant.
792
00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:06,280
Eyewitness accounts report that Scott rushed to Jumbo's side
793
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:10,960
and watched as he took one last breath and died.
794
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:17,000
His devoted keeper is said to have "wept inconsolably"
795
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:19,080
at the loss of his best friend.
796
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:23,240
Matthew Scott never really recovered
797
00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:25,880
from the death of his beloved elephant.
798
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:28,840
He hung around the circus for some time
799
00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:33,200
and then Barnum, in a business-like and brisk way, paid him off
800
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:38,040
and had Jumbo's body stuffed and mounted and paraded.
801
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:46,800
Jumbo was just 24 when he died.
802
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:54,960
His death became front-page news around the world.
803
00:53:56,680 --> 00:53:58,280
The young elephant who had
804
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:00,120
arrived at London Zoo as an orphan
805
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:02,440
had become a hugely popular
806
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:04,640
and much-loved superstar.
807
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:12,560
He gave a great number of people enormous pleasure
808
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:16,400
and a vivid, unforgettable impression of the magnificence
809
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:20,680
of the natural world that lay far beyond European cities.
810
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:24,880
But we now know that the life he led
811
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:27,840
was not the right life for an elephant.
812
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,800
Keeping elephants locked up on their own
813
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:38,880
goes against everything that they've evolved to be.
814
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:44,040
Not having any choice, not having anything different
815
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:47,800
would be really detrimental to their wellbeing,
816
00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:49,480
just like it's bad for people.
817
00:54:58,080 --> 00:54:59,600
In the case of Jumbo,
818
00:54:59,600 --> 00:55:05,320
I don't think there's anything worse than incarcerating an elephant.
819
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:08,520
A really, really tragic life lost.
820
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:10,080
Awful.
821
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:20,400
Maybe it's remarkable he survived as long as he did,
822
00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:23,160
in the conditions that elephants were kept in at the time,
823
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:26,000
because no-one really knew how to care for an African elephant.
824
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:28,640
They were still mysterious, exotic animals
825
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:30,720
from deepest, darkest Africa.
826
00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:41,320
We do have the choice of how we take care of elephants,
827
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:43,960
wherever they are, and Jumbo's a good case
828
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:46,400
of where we did not take good care of an elephant,
829
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:47,760
and we can learn from that.
830
00:55:56,120 --> 00:56:00,000
Thankfully, we now have a much deeper understanding
831
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:02,120
of the needs of elephants.
832
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:06,800
We've come to realise that they should always be in the company
833
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:11,200
of their own kind so that they can build lasting relationships.
834
00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:15,680
And they need space to live their lives.
835
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:20,240
But many held in captivity today do not have that space.
836
00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:25,640
130 years after Jumbo was killed, there's good news.
837
00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:30,320
Circuses across Europe and America
838
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:34,880
are sending their performing elephants into retirement.
839
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:39,400
Of course, the elephants can't be returned to the wild -
840
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:41,040
they were captured too young
841
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:45,160
to have learned the skills necessary to survive out there.
842
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:48,880
But, thankfully, there are sanctuaries,
843
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:50,960
like this one in Tennessee.
844
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:58,560
Here, there are great areas of woodland,
845
00:56:58,560 --> 00:57:02,400
where the elephants can roam and do what they want to do,
846
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:04,880
and not what human beings tell them to do.
847
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:16,840
Jumbo's life was cut cruelly short
848
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:19,840
but these elephants will have a chance
849
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:23,600
of having a long and peaceful end to theirs.
68837
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.