Queenie (Melbourne Elephant)
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Queenie was a female
Indian elephant The Indian elephant (''Elephas maximus indicus'') is one of three extant recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, native to mainland Asia. The species is smaller than the African elephant species with a convex back and the highest body po ...
who was used to give rides for children at
Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo is a zoo in Melbourne, Australia. It is located within Royal Park, Melbourne, Royal Park in Parkville, Victoria, Parkville, approximately north of the centre of Melbourne. It is the primary zoo serving Melbourne. As of 2021, the ...
for 40 years. Born in the wild, in India around 1900, or perhaps as early as 1895, she arrived at Melbourne Zoo in March 1902—her acquisition funded by Frederick Sheppard Grimwade—and started carrying joy-riders in 1905. Queenie carried 64,447 people, during the year 1929. By 1937, she had carried an estimated 1.5 million passengers and had walked over 19,000 miles. In the year 1936, she earned the zoo £718/7/4, at a time when the basic wage was only £3/12/- per week. Although carrying people every day was not physically taxing, for an elephant, 40 years of doing so was relentlessly monotonous, for such an intelligent animal. Queenie was a very popular exhibit, with large crowds of children often gathering around her enclosure even when she was not giving rides. She was often teased by children and her keeper,
Andrew Wilkie Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Division of Clark, Clark (previously Division of Denison, Denison). Before entering politics Wilkie was an infantry officer in the Austr ...
, said she would retaliate by using her trunk to "tumble such trespassers over in the dust".
"On one occasion, a group of about fifteen schoolboys were teasing Queenie by offering her nuts and fruit in turn and then withdrawing the food just as she reached for it. This game continued for a while until the elephant retreated to the pool behind her house. She returned some minutes later and, imitating their behaviour, held out her trunk to each boy in turn, withdrawing it before they would touch it. The boys were delighted with this variation of the game until, as if carrying out a pre-planned attack, she soaked them all thoroughly with a well-aimed spray of dirty water from her pool."Melbourne Zoo
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She was
euthanized Animal euthanasia (euthanasia from ; "good death") is the act of killing an animal humanely, most commonly with injectable drugs. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditions or diseases, lack of resources to con ...
, in July 1945, ten months after she had crushed keeper Wilfred Lawson to death in September 1944. Lawson had come out of retirement and returned to the zoo, due to a wartime labour shortage. He was said to be rough with Queenie, hitting her behind her ear, with a piece of wood, if she did not move quickly enough. Queenie had reacted to Lawson's return, and was said to have become more difficult to manage; on one occasion, she was said to have pushed Lawson against a wall and that he needed to call for assistance. An eyewitness to Lawson's death said that Queenie had seemed reluctant to return to her enclosure, after her day's work, and Lawson tapped her on the trunk with a stick. The witness said that, in response, Queenie swung her trunk and knocked Lawson down. She then picked up Lawson and crushed him against her mouth, then dropped him to the ground and knelt over him, before another attendant arrived and waved her away. Nonetheless, after her keeper's death she fretted in his absence, suggesting that the attack, while deliberate, was not intended to be fatal. Although withdrawn from service providing rides and found to be dangerous by a
coronial inquiry A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
, she initially remained at the zoo, as an exhibit; it was a fodder shortage and the high cost of keeping her fed that led to her death. In 1962, elephant rides at Melbourne Zoo finally ceased.


See also

*
List of individual elephants The following is a list of culturally or scientifically notable elephants. Actors * Chirakkal Kalidasan, one of the tallest elephants in Kerala, also notable for acting in some films, including the 2017 epic film, ''Baahubali 2: The Conc ...


References


Sources


Queenie's last ride
''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', August 10, 2006.
''Queenie: One Elephant's Story''
by Corinne Fenton and illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe ( Black Dog Books) - a children's story.
Melbourne Zoo - Queenie
History of Melbourne Individual animals in Australia Individual Asian elephants 1945 animal deaths Animal deaths by euthanasia {{afrotheria-stub