An Elephant Never Forgets Trivia Quiz

Answer: Batyr

Batyr was an Indian elephant who lived his whole life (1969-1993) at zoos in Kazakhstan, never having seen or heard another elephant. In 1977, he began to speak understandable words and eventually amassed about twenty words and short phrases. He apparently manipulated his trunk in his mouth to speak. After his death he was honored on a Kazakhstan postage stamp.

Answer: Old Bet

In 1808, Hachaliah Bailey, of Somers, New York, bought an African elephant from a menagerie in Boston and named her Old Bet; she was the first or second elephant brought to the United States. Bailey toured the northeast U.S. with her, charging a few coins or two gallons of rum as an admission price! Old Bet was killed near Alfred, Maine, by a farmer who thought it sinful for people to pay to see an animal.

Other people, noting Bailey's financial success in touring with Old Bet, started touring with animals, soon merging with traveling circus performers and thus the traveling American circus was formed.

Answer: Hansken

Rembrandt saw Hansken the white elephant (actually a pinkish shade) in Amsterdam in 1637 and made several chalk drawings of her. She toured in the Netherlands and Germany, then later in Switzerland and Italy. While in Florence, Italy, she was drawn by Stefano della Bella.

Answer: Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse

Topsy got involved in Thomas Edison's private war with George Westinghouse (and Nikola Tesla) over whether alternating or direct current would be the principal form of electricity used in the United States. Topsy was a circus elephant who had killed three men who were abusive to her.

It was decided that she must die and Edison, wanting to show how lethal alternating current was (he was a champion of direct current) suggested she be electrocuted. On January 4, 1903, she was electrocuted with 6,600 AC volts. Edison filmed the electrocution and distributed it throughout the U.S. under the title "Electrocuting an Elephant".

Answer: Castor and Pollux

Castor and Pollux were the two 'stars' of the zoo, having been named after Castor and Pollux, the twin stars in the constellation Gemini. They were killed and butchered in December, 1870, with their trunks garnering the most money. Henry De Pre Labouchere, an English politician, tried a slice of Pollux, and wrote home: "I do not recommend English families to eat elephant as long as they can get beef or mutton".

Answer: Tyke

Tyke is the answer. She was an African elephant owned by Circus International. During the performance on August 20, 1994, after attacking the men she ran through the streets of Honolulu for a half-hour. She finally died after police had shot her 86 times.

She had two previous incidents of being out of control in 1993, on mainland U.S.A. Several lawsuits followed all of those incidents but it was never determined if abusive handling was the reason for her rampages.

Answer: Hanno

Pope Leo X received Hanno, a white elephant, as a gift from King Manuel I of Portugal in 1514. The Asian elephant quickly became the Pope's favorite animal and a special pavilion was made for him between St. Peter's Basilica and the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. Hanno died in 1516 from complications of a treatment for constipation and was buried in the Belvedere courtyard in Vatican City.

Answer: Ruby

Ruby was an Asian elephant who was bought by the Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. Zoo in 1974, when she was less than a year old. After a few years her keepers noticed her scratching in the dirt with a stick. Jokingly, they offered her a paintbrush and some paints. Ruby seemed to understand it right away and was soon producing modern art paintings on canvas. Granted, some people think modern art is all scratches and ill-defined lines on canvas but let's not go there! Ruby enjoyed it and the Phoenix Zoo made many improvements because of the money they raised by selling Ruby's paintings. Ruby died in 1997 of complications from pregnancy.

Answer: Hannibal

Surus was one of 37 elephants used by Hannibal when he crossed the Alps into Italy during the Second Punic War. After Hannibal lost an eye to an infection he used Surus as a viewing platform.

Answer: Jumbo

Jumbo was a male African elephant bought by U.S. promoter and circus owner P.T. Barnum in 1881 from the London Zoo. While there, the elephant had been named Jumbo, probably after one of two Swahili words: jumbe, meaning "chief", or jambe, meaning "hello". Barnum owned over twenty elephants but Jumbo became the most famous, being exhibited in New York City and then across North America.

He was killed when hit by a locomotive in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada in 1885, while parading through the city. Barnum had Jumbo's skin stuffed and exhibited that for a while, eventually giving it to Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Jumbo became Tufts' mascot by name; as well, his name has become synonymous with anything of large proportions.