0:00:03 > 0:00:08150 years ago, hardly anyone in Europe had ever seen
0:00:08 > 0:00:11a living African elephant,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14and then an enormous male arrived.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16His name was Jumbo,
0:00:16 > 0:00:21and his story is extraordinary and dramatic.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27He was rumoured to be largest elephant on the planet
0:00:27 > 0:00:31and his celebrity status took him across the globe.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Millions flocked to see him during his lifetime,
0:00:36 > 0:00:37and it's said that he inspired
0:00:37 > 0:00:39Hollywood movies long after his death.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45But contemporary accounts reveal a troubled life
0:00:45 > 0:00:49fuelled by alcohol, with episodes of terrifying violence,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52a near mystical relationship with his keeper
0:00:52 > 0:00:55and a tragic end that seems hard to believe.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Now, I'm going to look beyond Jumbo's celebrity
0:01:01 > 0:01:04for the real elephant behind the myths.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08How big was he in reality?
0:01:08 > 0:01:10And what is the truth behind the mysteries
0:01:10 > 0:01:12that surround his tragic death?
0:01:14 > 0:01:17With access to Jumbo's physical remains,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20those questions can finally be answered.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23And with the help of a team of scientists,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26elephant experts and conservationists,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29I will try to find out how our understanding of elephants
0:01:29 > 0:01:32has changed since Jumbo's time.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39This is the story of the world's first animal superstar.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41This is the story of Jumbo.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15In 1882, a unique shipment is about to arrive
0:02:15 > 0:02:19here in one of the busiest ports in the world.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22On board, in a massive wooden crate,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27is an animal that has already captured hearts in Britain.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29His name is Jumbo
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and he's now all set to become a superstar -
0:02:33 > 0:02:35the most famous animal in the world.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48My investigation into Jumbo's life
0:02:48 > 0:02:52begins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00There are elephant skeletons on display here as in many museums
0:03:00 > 0:03:03around the world, but what I'm looking for
0:03:03 > 0:03:05lies behind the scenes.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Jumbo's remains were brought here after his death
0:03:09 > 0:03:12and are still among the most treasured specimens
0:03:12 > 0:03:13in the collections.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It's hard to think of a more famous animal than Jumbo.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25I mean, we have a lot of famous specimens
0:03:25 > 0:03:29in the museum, but it's hard to imagine another specimen
0:03:29 > 0:03:32that carries with it so much history,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34so much lore and legend.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56All these bones have been kept in the museum's
0:03:56 > 0:03:59special temperature controlled storage unit
0:03:59 > 0:04:03for decades, unexamined,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07but now they're being brought out for another look at them.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12For the first time in their history,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15the museum has granted access to Jumbo's skeleton
0:04:15 > 0:04:20for scientific analysis, and I'll be joining an international team
0:04:20 > 0:04:24of researchers as they attempt to answer some of the mysteries
0:04:24 > 0:04:26that still surround this giant.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32One of the important things about collections
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and the reason the museum has great collections like this,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40including Jumbo, is that technologies come about
0:04:40 > 0:04:43that allow you to re-look at these specimens
0:04:43 > 0:04:46in ways you never imagined before.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Among the team carrying out this first-ever full survey
0:04:51 > 0:04:53of Jumbo is Dr Richard Thomas,
0:04:53 > 0:04:57a researcher of ancient animal bones from the University of Leicester.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02With him is Professor John Hutchinson,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04from the Royal Veterinary College,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07an authority on locomotion in large land animals.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14Finally, Dr Holly Miller from the University of Nottingham,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17who will be analysing the chemical content of Jumbo's bones
0:05:17 > 0:05:20for clues about his diet and overall health.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34And this is what remains of Jumbo.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48There are of course hundreds, if not thousands, of elephant skeletons
0:05:48 > 0:05:50in museums around the world,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54so why should this particular one be of special interest?
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Well, when Jumbo was alive,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00many people believed that he was the biggest
0:06:00 > 0:06:02living land animal on Earth.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07Certainly the biggest that anyone had ever seen.
0:06:07 > 0:06:1020 million people came to see him,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14and after his death, many continued to do so.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18But many mysteries remain.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Exactly how big was he
0:06:20 > 0:06:27and why did he have terrible fits of rage and violence during the night
0:06:27 > 0:06:30that led him to demolish the cages in which he was kept?
0:06:30 > 0:06:35And, above all, how did he die?
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Even that is still a mystery.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45While the scientists across the Atlantic begin their study
0:06:45 > 0:06:48of Jumbo's bones, I am looking through the archives
0:06:48 > 0:06:51of the London Zoo to try and trace his story
0:06:51 > 0:06:55from Africa to Britain and ultimately to America.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10This register records every important event at London Zoo
0:07:10 > 0:07:15and the entry for June 26th 1865
0:07:15 > 0:07:19notes the arrival of one African elephant.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23It was called Jumbo.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26The name in Swahili means "hello".
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Today, because of this elephant,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35the word Jumbo has come to mean something that's extremely large.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38But, in fact, Jumbo didn't arrive as a giant.
0:07:38 > 0:07:39Far from it.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The first image of him here is as a small orphan,
0:07:43 > 0:07:44so how did he get here?
0:07:53 > 0:07:57During the 19th century, new zoos across Europe and North America
0:07:57 > 0:08:00were looking for spectacular exhibits
0:08:00 > 0:08:02that would attract visitors.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08Elephants were an obvious choice.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16The first to appear were Asian elephants.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21They are found in India eastwards to south East Asia
0:08:21 > 0:08:26and as far as the visitors to the London Zoo in Victorian times
0:08:26 > 0:08:30were concerned, they were the biggest animals they had ever seen.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37But African elephants are much bigger.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42In fact, they are the largest living land animals on the planet
0:08:42 > 0:08:43and unlike Asian elephants,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46they have hardly ever been domesticated.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56They were once widespread across the continent
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and records suggest that Jumbo had been captured somewhere
0:09:00 > 0:09:02in the north-east.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10A 19th century traveller exploring the Sudan
0:09:10 > 0:09:13has left an account of the brutal way
0:09:13 > 0:09:16in which the local people hunted elephants.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18They would find a mother and her calf,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21chase them until they were both exhausted
0:09:21 > 0:09:25and then spear the mother to death and take the baby.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29So, young Jumbo almost certainly would have witnessed
0:09:29 > 0:09:31the death of his mother.
0:09:31 > 0:09:32Here.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Hunting is still a huge problem in Africa.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Adults are killed for their ivory tusks
0:09:44 > 0:09:46and they often leave behind young orphans -
0:09:46 > 0:09:49motherless babies just like young Jumbo.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59As the first of his kind in a British zoo,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Jumbo was bound to attract a lot of attention,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05but his arrival happened to coincide
0:10:05 > 0:10:09with a relatively new technique called photography
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and that would help to immortalise him.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Throughout this rich visual record of Jumbo's life,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22the image of one man occurs
0:10:22 > 0:10:25again and again and again.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31He was a man whose life became totally bound up with Jumbo's.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35His name was Matthew Scott, Jumbo's keeper.
0:10:37 > 0:10:43Scott was known to be a difficult man with no close friends,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46and he was no expert on elephants,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50but he did have a deep empathy for animals of all kinds.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Within hours of meeting, man and beast had bonded,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00and unusually for a working man of the time, Scott wrote
0:11:00 > 0:11:04an account, an autobiography of his life with Jumbo.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10This is it. There've been lots of books written about Jumbo,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14but this is by far the most touching and first-hand.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19Here's Scott describing his first meeting with Jumbo.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24"I thought I never saw a creature so woebegone.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26"The poor thing was full of disease,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29"which had worked its way through the animal's hide
0:11:29 > 0:11:32"and had almost eaten out its eyes."
0:11:34 > 0:11:39Scott now set out on his mission to raise the young elephant.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43It was the beginning of a truly remarkable relationship.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48Scott had never cared for a young elephant before
0:11:48 > 0:11:52and it must have seemed a daunting task.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya
0:11:55 > 0:11:58knows exactly how difficult it is.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Head keeper Edwin Lusichi, like Scott,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07is caring for a new orphan who has just arrived.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12This elephant close to me is called Musiara.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14He was rescued from the Masai Mara.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19He was found stuck in the mud when he was only about two months old
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and he seems to have stayed there for quite some time,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25because he was very skinny, very thin and very weak,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29a sign that he had been without the mother for quite some time.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31And we hope for the best for him.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Musiara is so traumatised by his experience,
0:12:40 > 0:12:45a keeper will have to stay by his side 24 hours a day.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52There's no quick easy fix when raising orphaned elephants.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54I mean, you're in for the long term.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Some arrive in perfectly good shape,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03but the majority have had a dramatic story before they get to us.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12The first step is straightforward physical care,
0:13:12 > 0:13:13but they need more than that.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Elephants are highly social.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23Musiara, like Jumbo, needs what he would have received
0:13:23 > 0:13:28from his elephant family - constant company, touching and love.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37They need that emotional support.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Elephants are all about love and family
0:13:39 > 0:13:42and that is what our orphans have been robbed of,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46and one has to very, very quickly plug that gap
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and it really is the keepers at this early stage
0:13:50 > 0:13:52where that strong bond is formed.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Matthew Scott's autobiography makes it clear
0:14:01 > 0:14:06that he instinctively gave Jumbo the emotional support he needed.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15"I undertook to be his doctor, his nurse and general servant.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18"I watched and nursed him night and day
0:14:18 > 0:14:21"with all the care and affection of a mother,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25"if it were possible for a man to do such a thing."
0:14:29 > 0:14:32His approach clearly worked, because six months later,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Jumbo looked like a different elephant
0:14:35 > 0:14:38and could at last be displayed to the public.
0:14:41 > 0:14:42By the time he was six,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46he was beginning to carry children on rides around the zoo,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49and they apparently rewarded him with sticky buns.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Lots of sticky buns.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Jumbo quickly became hugely popular.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Even Queen Victoria's children took rides on his back.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02But had this once wild African elephant
0:15:02 > 0:15:05really grown into a gentle giant?
0:15:06 > 0:15:11As Jumbo grew, he was moved from his stable next to the giraffe house
0:15:11 > 0:15:13into a larger enclosure.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16But London Zoo's records from the time tell us that,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19behind the scenes, all was not well.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Jumbo's calmness during the day was in sharp contrast
0:15:25 > 0:15:27to his behaviour at night.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31Then he would become possessed by terrifyingly violent rages
0:15:31 > 0:15:34in which he would smash the timbers of his enclosure,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36and he did that so regularly
0:15:36 > 0:15:40that carpenters would have to be called in again and again
0:15:40 > 0:15:42in order to make repairs.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Apparently, he had a curious Jekyll and Hyde character
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and one that would persist during his time in London.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56Remarkably, Matthew Scott makes no real mention of Jumbo's rages.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00But evidence for these violent outbursts can be readily seen
0:16:00 > 0:16:02in the photos of the time.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Male African elephants grow the longest of all tusks,
0:16:12 > 0:16:14yet in nearly every photo,
0:16:14 > 0:16:19Jumbo's tusks seem small or even non-existent.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28The head of London Zoo at the time, Abraham Bartlett,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32has left an account of what happened to Jumbo's tusks.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38During these terrifying nocturnal rages,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43Jumbo damaged not only his enclosure, but himself
0:16:43 > 0:16:47on one such occasion as Bartlett records in his book.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52"Jumbo broke both his tusks by driving them
0:16:52 > 0:16:55"through the ironwork of his den.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57"The tusks were broken off within his mouth
0:16:57 > 0:17:01"probably close to his upper jaw bone."
0:17:01 > 0:17:03And then when they did grow again,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Jumbo ground them down against the stonework.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14But what could be the cause of his night-time outbursts
0:17:14 > 0:17:16and terrible acts of self-harm?
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Maybe his bones back in New York could contain some clues.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26I join Richard and John as they examine
0:17:26 > 0:17:30the most impressive part of Jumbo's remains - his huge skull.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36One of the first things we see when we look at his skull
0:17:36 > 0:17:39is just how malformed his teeth are.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43- Here.- Yeah. I mean, we can see this tooth here is really curved
0:17:43 > 0:17:47in this direction, and on the other side, it's curved again.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49They should have been straight, Richard?
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Yeah, you wouldn't expect to see the tooth bent
0:17:51 > 0:17:54in this kind of way in a normal, healthy elephant.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57We can think of elephant teeth a bit like conveyor belts,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00so they have six teeth, but only ever one of them
0:18:00 > 0:18:03will be in wear on each side at any one time
0:18:03 > 0:18:07and another one will be coming in underneath and behind it
0:18:07 > 0:18:11to replace it at the time which that tooth falls out.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13When that tooth doesn't wear down enough,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16what happens is it gets stuck in the mouth
0:18:16 > 0:18:20and it stays there, but the other tooth carries on developing
0:18:20 > 0:18:23and moving up behind it, and because it's softer,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25because it hasn't formed properly,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29what happens is it hits the tooth that's impacted
0:18:29 > 0:18:32and bends, bends out of shape.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34You can see right here that there's this gap.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36All that sweet food and other inappropriate diet
0:18:36 > 0:18:39that Jumbo was having could have gotten stuck
0:18:39 > 0:18:42and even gotten into the root and the gum
0:18:42 > 0:18:44where infection could have got started,
0:18:44 > 0:18:48or at least inflammation. Probably pretty painful, I would think.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50So, Jumbo had terrible toothache?
0:18:50 > 0:18:52Yeah. I'm afraid so.
0:18:52 > 0:18:53Ah, poor old thing.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04In the wild, African elephants adapt their diet to the changing seasons.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06During the wet season,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10grass can make up 90% of what they eat, but in drier months,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14they will browse on twigs and leaves and even bark.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Their ridged teeth help grind down this more fibrous food,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20making it easier to digest.
0:19:23 > 0:19:24But what of Jumbo?
0:19:24 > 0:19:30Was his diet in captivity really as poor as his deformed teeth suggest?
0:19:39 > 0:19:44Dr Holly Miller, from the University of Nottingham, may help answer that.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46By taking samples from Jumbo's bones,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50particularly the femur or leg bone and the ribs,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53she hopes to discover more about his diet.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59These tiny samples could tell us a lot
0:19:59 > 0:20:01about the food Jumbo was eating
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and reveal whether or not that affected his overall health.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Jumbo has some interesting stories to tell.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20So, his femur results, that gives us the diet,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23a broad idea of the diet for about 20 years,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25and the ribs a lot shorter period of that,
0:20:25 > 0:20:26maybe ten, five to ten years.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28So we're seeing his diet in London
0:20:28 > 0:20:32and some of his diet in America, possibly,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36and we're seeing largely a very stable diet in that period.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Does that match with the suggestion that his diet
0:20:39 > 0:20:42was actually almost entirely hay and penny buns?
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Yes, we are definitely seeing some suggestion that he's not getting
0:20:46 > 0:20:49the variety of diet that other elephants should.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52What they should have in their diet is a lot of browse.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56They use their trunks to access the top of trees
0:20:56 > 0:20:58and they get twigs and bark which helps them
0:20:58 > 0:21:00break down the diet.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04The pathologies we saw with his teeth, they were coming through
0:21:04 > 0:21:06in the wrong angle and they were soft.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09They're not hardening because they're not being used
0:21:09 > 0:21:12in the right way, they're not being used
0:21:12 > 0:21:15to grind down the right sort of food.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18So it seems that elephants, just like humans,
0:21:18 > 0:21:23can suffer severe dental problems if they don't have the right diet.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26But was this having an effect on Jumbo's behaviour?
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Anyone's who's had toothache knows that it seems worse at night
0:21:35 > 0:21:37when you have no distractions,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41so maybe this is one of the explanations
0:21:41 > 0:21:46for Jumbo's terrifying nocturnal rages,
0:21:46 > 0:21:48and maybe, too, it supports the story
0:21:48 > 0:21:51that Matthew Scott, his keeper,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54used to feed him lots of whisky in order to calm him.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Scott, apparently, had no family or close friends
0:22:01 > 0:22:03and he totally devoted himself to Jumbo,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07even to the extent that the two of them would often drink
0:22:07 > 0:22:08late into the night.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14But Scott's unorthodox methods to help pacify Jumbo
0:22:14 > 0:22:17do little to calm his boss's nerves.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Abraham Bartlett worries that instead of attacking
0:22:21 > 0:22:25his cage at night, Jumbo, by day, might turn on the public,
0:22:25 > 0:22:26including children.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35As a precaution, he purchases a gun in case he has to shoot Jumbo.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Bartlett becomes convinced that Jumbo is suffering
0:22:43 > 0:22:48not from toothache, but from musth, a natural condition periodically
0:22:48 > 0:22:52affecting young male elephants when they become sexually mature.
0:22:57 > 0:23:03During musth, testosterone levels in males can increase 60-fold
0:23:03 > 0:23:06and they become extremely aggressive.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10The temporal glands on the head behind the eyes swell and leak,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14and the elephants, as they walk, discharge an almost continuous
0:23:14 > 0:23:17dribble of urine, creating a scent trail.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Until recently, there was little research on young male elephants.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Dr Vicki Fishlock is one of a team of researchers
0:23:28 > 0:23:32who've been studying males in Kenya's Amboseli National Park
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and she's now beginning to understand
0:23:35 > 0:23:37what drives their behaviour.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39Was Abraham Bartlett right about musth
0:23:39 > 0:23:41being the cause of Jumbo's aggression?
0:23:49 > 0:23:52So, males in musth are really signalling
0:23:52 > 0:23:54their competitive ability,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58they are really signalling that they're in great shape
0:23:58 > 0:23:59and that females should mate with them
0:23:59 > 0:24:01and that other males should look out.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Musth is really a way of saying,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09"I'm here, I'm big and I'm on a mission."
0:24:09 > 0:24:13I usually say they're cruising for girls and trouble.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19In the wild, musth usually starts
0:24:19 > 0:24:22when a male elephant is in his mid to late 20s.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26But in captivity, musth can begin much earlier,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31and, indeed, Jumbo was 21 when his night rages intensified.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Could his heightened aggression come from musth?
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Vicki is not convinced.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44Musth is really, for elephants, a state about dominance,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46and establishing dominance.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50So, if Jumbo's rages had been associated with musth,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52you would expect that would be directed not just
0:24:52 > 0:24:56to his physical surroundings, but to his keepers as well,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00who were also controlling his behaviour in some way.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03So, you'd expect him to have directed some aggression
0:25:03 > 0:25:07towards the humans around him.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10But there is nothing in the historical records
0:25:10 > 0:25:13to suggest that Jumbo was ever violent towards people.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17So, was Abraham Bartlett mistaken
0:25:17 > 0:25:21for blaming Jumbo's increasing aggression on musth?
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Could there perhaps be another explanation?
0:25:34 > 0:25:39Work in the United States with retired zoo and circus elephants
0:25:39 > 0:25:40may provide the answer.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Sookie, trunk here.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48The behavioural problems that afflicted Jumbo
0:25:48 > 0:25:52more than 100 years ago are all too familiar to carers
0:25:52 > 0:25:54who work with the African elephants here
0:25:54 > 0:25:57in the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08The sanctuary was created to provide a home
0:26:08 > 0:26:11for old or unwanted elephants across America.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16The elephants themselves had been captured as orphans in Africa
0:26:16 > 0:26:20and then kept isolated or locked up, like Jumbo.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27When they first arrive here, many are extremely agitated
0:26:27 > 0:26:31and aggressive, and evidence of self-harm
0:26:31 > 0:26:32is all too obvious.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37Their tusks worn down by repeated rubbing against their den walls.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45The similarities to Jumbo are clear.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52But there is one big difference - these elephants are all female.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58So, clearly their aggressiveness cannot be due
0:26:58 > 0:27:00to a surge of male hormones.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06In fact, their behaviour quickly improves as they settle in
0:27:06 > 0:27:10and build friendships with other elephants in the sanctuary.
0:27:12 > 0:27:18We now know that elephants are extremely social animals,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22they need the company of their own kind.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25And we also know that they're extremely intelligent,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27they easily get bored.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30So keeping a single elephant in captivity
0:27:30 > 0:27:35is not a way to rear a happy and healthy elephant.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40To visitors to London Zoo in the 19th century,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Jumbo did indeed appear to be a happy elephant,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48but they had no idea of his aggressive darker side.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Bartlett kept that a secret.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54And back at the museum in New York,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57there is evidence that his life in captivity
0:27:57 > 0:28:00was also damaging his physical health.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03When we look at the knee, we see all sorts of kind of changes in the bone
0:28:03 > 0:28:07that we wouldn't really expect to see in an elephant of his age.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10Remember, Jumbo's only 24 and still growing.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13But what we see actually when we start looking at the bone surface,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15we can see it's really roughened
0:28:15 > 0:28:19and you'll see these extra lumps of bone that shouldn't be there.
0:28:19 > 0:28:20You've got them on this side
0:28:20 > 0:28:23and John's got them on the side of the tibia here.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27Yeah, there's some bumps invading into the joint surface itself,
0:28:27 > 0:28:28which is not a good sign.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31And what these are is, these are lumps of bone
0:28:31 > 0:28:35at the point where ligaments are attaching to the joints,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38and the bone is adapting to try and compensate
0:28:38 > 0:28:40for all those stresses he's experiencing.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44For a 24-year-old elephant, it's kind of like a 24-year-old person
0:28:44 > 0:28:46having similar kinds of joint problems.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Well, we know Jumbo carried loads of people, certainly children,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54I think even adults, could that have produced this consequence?
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Sure, yeah, loading them up with people and walking them around
0:28:58 > 0:29:01on a hard surface and not giving them the right diet,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04all these factors could spiral together
0:29:04 > 0:29:09and give Jumbo problems like these joint inflammation problems.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13So, far from being bad-tempered with his nocturnal rages,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16it sounds as though he was extraordinarily patient
0:29:16 > 0:29:19day after day after day to carry passengers,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22which is what the zoo did.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26There is no doubt that Jumbo was held in deep affection
0:29:26 > 0:29:30by the general public, but his bones suggest that he was
0:29:30 > 0:29:34in effect being harmed by those who adored him most.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40The stresses and strains of captivity combined with a poor diet
0:29:40 > 0:29:44and hundreds of rides at London Zoo created symptoms
0:29:44 > 0:29:47usually associated with old age.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51His bones are more like an elephant in its 40s or 50s
0:29:51 > 0:29:52than in its 20s.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57There's nothing in the zoo's records suggesting that they had concerns
0:29:57 > 0:29:58about Jumbo's health.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03But the head of the zoo, Abraham Bartlett,
0:30:03 > 0:30:05was still extremely worried
0:30:05 > 0:30:08about Jumbo's fits of uncontrollable violence.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14As a result, he makes a shocking decision -
0:30:14 > 0:30:17to try and sell the popular elephant,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19and he hears of a possible buyer,
0:30:19 > 0:30:23the famous American circus showman, PT Barnum.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27News that Barnum was looking for an African elephant
0:30:27 > 0:30:30reached the London Zoo in the form of a telegram which said,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33"What was the lowest price that they would accept
0:30:33 > 0:30:35"for their African elephant?"
0:30:35 > 0:30:40Here was a marvellous opportunity for Bartlett to get rid
0:30:40 > 0:30:45of his problematic elephant and he cabled back £2,000.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48That's over £150,000 in today's money,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53an enormous sum, and this register shows that it was accepted.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00PT Barnum was the owner
0:31:00 > 0:31:03of the popular Greatest Show on Earth touring circus,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06which already featured 20 Asian elephants.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08He was an astute businessman,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12who had made his fortune exhibiting fake curiosities
0:31:12 > 0:31:17and he wanted a star attraction to draw in crowds to his new circus.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24Barnum sent his head elephant keeper to collect Jumbo
0:31:24 > 0:31:27and we know how difficult a task that proved to be,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30because newspapers of the time reported in detail
0:31:30 > 0:31:32on this highly public event.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42As crowds gathered, he attached chains round the elephant's neck.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Jumbo ripped them off.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47They attached more chains and eventually got him
0:31:47 > 0:31:51to the mouth of the crate, whereupon Jumbo, sensing a trap,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55simply lowered himself onto his stomach and sat there,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58and nothing anybody could do would make him budge.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Both Bartlett and Barnum began to suspect that his keeper Scott
0:32:05 > 0:32:09was using some form of secret language with Jumbo
0:32:09 > 0:32:12to make him unwilling to leave the zoo.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Could that be possible?
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Could man and elephant have talked to each other?
0:32:19 > 0:32:23Today, we know that elephants use a variety of ways to communicate,
0:32:23 > 0:32:27but it's taken decades of field research to decode
0:32:27 > 0:32:30the many sounds and signals that they use.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Despite having poor eyesight,
0:32:38 > 0:32:43elephants will use visual signals to communicate when near each other.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46Their ears, trunks and tails can all be used
0:32:46 > 0:32:49to indicate emotional moods.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53Come on. Back here. Go.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57In recent years, scientists have come to discover
0:32:57 > 0:33:00that elephants are even able to understand a gesture
0:33:00 > 0:33:02that we tend to think of as uniquely human -
0:33:02 > 0:33:04pointing.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Not only that, it's been shown that they can distinguish
0:33:08 > 0:33:10between different human voices.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15So, was Matthew Scott secretly telling Jumbo to stay put?
0:33:17 > 0:33:20I'm absolutely sure that in a situation
0:33:20 > 0:33:22where you have a one-on-one relationship,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24like Jumbo had with his keeper,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28the trust that gets built up enables two-way communication.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34And what happens next seems to support this.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Barnum offered to take on Scott as Jumbo's keeper,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40to go with his beloved elephant to America,
0:33:40 > 0:33:45and almost immediately after this deal is agreed, Jumbo cooperated.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53As the frenzy about Jumbo's departure reached its peak,
0:33:53 > 0:33:5920,000 people a day assembled at the zoo to protest about it.
0:33:59 > 0:34:04A court case was filed to try and prevent the bargain.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Queen Victoria was said to be extremely upset.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10But the deal had been done.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16On the 22nd of March 1882, in the middle of the night,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18crowds of onlookers assembled
0:34:18 > 0:34:23to watch Jumbo being pulled to the docks by 12 horses,
0:34:23 > 0:34:28with Scott standing, stroking his elephant's trunk in reassurance.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Jumbo arrived at five o'clock in the morning
0:34:42 > 0:34:45down here at St Katherine's Dock.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49He was loaded onto a barge and then taken out to the Assyrian Monarch,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53the British ship that was going to take him across the Atlantic.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58He drank some beer, followed by a whisky chaser,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01and then the world's most famous elephant
0:35:01 > 0:35:03was ready for his departure.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06As the ship slowly sailed down the Thames,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10thousands lined its banks to wish him well.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16The publicity surrounding his departure had not gone unnoticed
0:35:16 > 0:35:18on the other side of the Atlantic,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22and would ensure that a huge crowd would be waiting to receive him.
0:35:29 > 0:35:34It was a two-week journey across the ocean to New York City
0:35:34 > 0:35:37and it must have been a horrible trip for the animal.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40It seems that, at times, he was a little seasick
0:35:40 > 0:35:43and had to be kept calm with alcohol.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48But over in America, Jumbo-mania was already erupting,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52and his new owner, PT Barnum, was keen to fuel this excitement.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00When the Assyrian Monarch reached the Hudson River,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Barnum chartered a small boat to take him out to the ship
0:36:03 > 0:36:09so that he could see his purchase for the very first time.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11Was it really as big as he had hoped?
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Barnum declared, without hesitation,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19that this was the biggest African elephant in the world,
0:36:19 > 0:36:21whether that was true or not.
0:36:27 > 0:36:33To discover how big Jumbo really was, we can turn to his bones again.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37The team will use his leg bone as a starting point.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44So, one of the things we can do is we can take the femur,
0:36:44 > 0:36:47- so we can take the leg bone... - This bone?- This bone here, yeah.
0:36:47 > 0:36:48..and we can measure the length.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52Because this is the bone that is the longest bone in the elephant's body
0:36:52 > 0:36:56and it gives us a good indication of how tall Jumbo might have been.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58So, how long is it?
0:36:58 > 0:36:59107 centimetres.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06So the circumference is...
0:37:06 > 0:37:09..39 centimetres.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13We can estimate his weight at around 6,000 kilograms -
0:37:13 > 0:37:16that's not obese for his height.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21Jumbo is measuring in at 3.2 metres tall.
0:37:21 > 0:37:22And we know how old he was?
0:37:22 > 0:37:25And we know how old he is and that's really, really important.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28We know he's 24 at the time of his death.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33What we can establish is what a normal wild African elephant
0:37:33 > 0:37:35should be at shoulder height at that age.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38- And that would be about 2.7 metres. - Wow!
0:37:38 > 0:37:40- So 3.2 metres...- So he's 3.2 metres?
0:37:40 > 0:37:44That's pretty tall. Actually, that's 20% different.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46That's an enormous difference.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50- Yeah, Jumbo was taller than he should be for his age.- Wow.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52That's surprising.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54Jumbo is about 20% taller.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Yeah. 3.2 metres is what he really was at the shoulder
0:37:58 > 0:38:01and instead what he should have been for a wild African elephant
0:38:01 > 0:38:05at 24 years of age would be more like 2.7 metres.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08- Really?- So he's... - He's a leggy elephant for his age.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14So, Jumbo's height was around 10 feet 6 inches,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18or 3.2 metres, at the time of his death.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20Evidence from wild elephants
0:38:20 > 0:38:25suggests that they can reach up to 13 feet, or 4 metres, in height
0:38:25 > 0:38:29and will weigh almost 7,000 kilograms.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33But his leg bone tells us more.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38This...zig-zag line here, this crack,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42tells us, I assume, that he was still growing?
0:38:42 > 0:38:44Yes, absolutely right.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46So, the ends of the bone are separate
0:38:46 > 0:38:48from the main body of the bone
0:38:48 > 0:38:52when mammals are growing, and eventually they will unite
0:38:52 > 0:38:53when the animal reaches its full size,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56but we can see here... Because this crack is still open,
0:38:56 > 0:38:58we can see that Jumbo is still growing.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Male African elephants continue to grow until they're 40,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06so Jumbo had another 16 years of growing.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10So, although he wasn't quite as tall as Barnum said he was,
0:39:10 > 0:39:15this animal had the potential of being exceptionally big.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17Yeah, he could've been a record-breaker
0:39:17 > 0:39:20if he had had that 16 extra years to grow.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27Jumbo's leg shows us that he was indeed a very big elephant.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31In fact, he was bigger than you would expect
0:39:31 > 0:39:33for an elephant of his age.
0:39:33 > 0:39:38He wasn't as big as Barnum claimed, but he was still growing,
0:39:38 > 0:39:42and he could have actually matched that claim, had he lived.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49But then, as Jumbo tours North America with the circus,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52there is a major change.
0:39:52 > 0:39:53TRAIN WHISTLES
0:39:55 > 0:39:58With 20 other elephants to keep him company,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01Jumbo has a lot more stimulation
0:40:01 > 0:40:04and there are no accounts of the night rages he suffered in London.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10And, of course, Matthew Scott, his keeper from London Zoo,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12is by his side throughout.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19But what about Jumbo's health at this time?
0:40:23 > 0:40:26The research team has another find to show me -
0:40:26 > 0:40:29a rather gruesome piece of Jumbo's remains.
0:40:35 > 0:40:41- So, this rather extraordinary relic is actually Jumbo's tail.- Oh.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43It's actually a really key part of the Jumbo puzzle
0:40:43 > 0:40:46from Tufts University in Massachusetts,
0:40:46 > 0:40:51where they held Jumbo's stuffed body after he died.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53But, unfortunately, that was lost in a fire,
0:40:53 > 0:40:55but we still have the remarkable tail.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01And what we have is these hairs, some very thick and some very thin.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04The thinner ones are new growth.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08We can take some samples of these finer hairs
0:41:08 > 0:41:11and one of the thicker, longer-growing hairs
0:41:11 > 0:41:16so we get a nice snapshot of Jumbo's diet almost right before he died.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18Who would have thought it?
0:41:19 > 0:41:23While Holly analyses the chemical content of Jumbo's tail,
0:41:23 > 0:41:27Richard and John discover something unusual about Jumbo's hip bone.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29Never seen this - both sides.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32It's both sides and it's also the same layering effect.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36You've got the...sort of older, remodelled bone underneath
0:41:36 > 0:41:40and you've got this layer of active new bone forming on the top.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42Really, really very pronounced.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44Huh. That's a lot of inflammation.
0:41:44 > 0:41:45Oh, it's incredible.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49- VOICEOVER:- He's got so many signs of stress and strain-related injuries -
0:41:49 > 0:41:51they must have been incredibly painful for him,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54but may have reflected the use to which he was put,
0:41:54 > 0:41:56both in London and in a circus in America.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59- Big patch of bone.- Yeah, huge, huge.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03Could these signs of inflammation indicate that Jumbo's health
0:42:03 > 0:42:05was in serious decline?
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Never seen anything like that. Does it go around?
0:42:07 > 0:42:09Holly has now had time to look at the chemical clues
0:42:09 > 0:42:12in the hair samples from Jumbo's tail,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16and of particular interest is the amount of nitrogen,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19an element that's crucial to the repair of the body.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Jumbo's nitrogen values are odd
0:42:24 > 0:42:27when compared to other elephants in other circumstances,
0:42:27 > 0:42:31and we can see that Jumbo is the highest of all these here.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34- By a long way. - By quite a long way, yes.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36So, elephants can reach these levels
0:42:36 > 0:42:40when they're stressed, but it only happens seasonally,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42when they're not getting much from their diet.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45You say "stressed" - that doesn't mean stress on the body,
0:42:45 > 0:42:47it means something to do with the diet.
0:42:47 > 0:42:48Physiologically stressed -
0:42:48 > 0:42:50their bodies aren't getting necessarily what they need
0:42:50 > 0:42:52from their environment.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54And if we think about what we saw
0:42:54 > 0:42:57where he was laying down all that new bone in his pelvis -
0:42:57 > 0:43:01to create new bone in your body, you need an awful lot of protein,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04so he would have been taking all of that from his diet.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09He's also, we think, at the end probably quite sick.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12We have some written records that suggest that he was unwell
0:43:12 > 0:43:16towards the end with some sort of wasting disease, potentially.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Jumbo's body must have been trying desperately to extract
0:43:21 > 0:43:25as much nitrogen as it could from his diet
0:43:25 > 0:43:27to help repair the bone in his hip.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33These injuries were likely related to his treatment in captivity,
0:43:33 > 0:43:37and it seems that, as a result, Jumbo was losing weight.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42There is little doubt that he must have been suffering.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48But that didn't stop his American owner, PT Barnum,
0:43:48 > 0:43:52from finding new ways to promote his biggest elephant.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56And a remarkable opportunity soon arose.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges
0:44:06 > 0:44:08in the United States.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11It was, in fact, opened in 1883,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14the year after Jumbo arrived in America
0:44:14 > 0:44:20and, almost immediately, an accident on it led to the death of 12 people.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27So, to squash any rumours about the bridge's safety,
0:44:27 > 0:44:31the authorities agreed to an unusual publicity stunt.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42On the 17th of May 1884,
0:44:43 > 0:44:48thousands of people lined these banks to see 20 elephants,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52led by Jumbo, marching across the bridge.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54What a sight it must have been.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00Scott, Jumbo's keeper, was nervous about the whole event.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02This is what he writes about it.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05"When Jumbo put his foot down on the bridge,
0:45:05 > 0:45:10"the bridge rebounded after the shock given by his foot.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13"The rebound was met by his second footstep,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16"and there was a great vibration caused by it.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19"I assure my reader that I was thankful
0:45:19 > 0:45:21"when we arrived on the Brooklyn side."
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Although Jumbo goes back to touring with the rest of the circus,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33all is not well.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40It seems the bone damage to Jumbo's leg
0:45:40 > 0:45:43is becoming a problem in his day-to-day life.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Not long after the parade across Brooklyn Bridge,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51an associate of Barnum's reports in a letter
0:45:51 > 0:45:55that an ailing Jumbo could no longer lie down.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59That doesn't stop Barnum,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02who's keen to keep the circus travelling with his prize elephant.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13In September 1885,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16the circus train crosses the border into Canada
0:46:16 > 0:46:19on what should be a routine tour.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23TRAIN HORN HONKS
0:46:27 > 0:46:29I'm keen to follow their journey,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32because the accounts of what happened next
0:46:32 > 0:46:34are shocking and tragic.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45In the 1880s, St Thomas, Ontario is the perfect stop
0:46:45 > 0:46:48for Barnum & Bailey's Circus.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51It's the central hub for 26 different railways
0:46:51 > 0:46:54that converged here from all over North America.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00On the day when the circus comes to town,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Jumbo is once again the main attraction,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06drawing crowds from miles around.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12By the late evening, the show is over.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16The tents are being taken down, the performers are packing up
0:47:16 > 0:47:18and the animals are being led down to the train.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Jumbo and a small elephant called Tom Thumb
0:47:22 > 0:47:24are the last to be loaded
0:47:24 > 0:47:29and, as Matthew Scott leads them towards their boxcar,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33a freight train comes thundering down the track towards them.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38Reports of what happens next differ.
0:47:38 > 0:47:44Some eyewitness accounts record Jumbo running away from the train,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47but, soon after, Barnum claims the opposite.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53He declares Jumbo's death "a great heroic act",
0:47:53 > 0:47:56telling reporters that the large elephant
0:47:56 > 0:47:58had run head-first into the train,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01sacrificing his own life to save his keeper
0:48:01 > 0:48:04and Tom Thumb, the smaller elephant.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12This image, based on Barnum's account of Jumbo's head-on crash,
0:48:12 > 0:48:14was to be published again and again.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20So, what is the truth?
0:48:20 > 0:48:24What actually happened on that railroad in St Thomas?
0:48:29 > 0:48:32The research team has been looking over Jumbo's bones
0:48:32 > 0:48:34for signs of injury.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Now that you've seen the entire skeleton,
0:48:39 > 0:48:41is there anything we can deduce
0:48:41 > 0:48:44about the way in which he met his end, his death?
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Our first thought was we might find some evidence of trauma
0:48:46 > 0:48:51in his skeleton that might relate to the impact of the train accident.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55So we've looked at the skeleton for evidence of fractures,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58and we have found no signs of any bone fractures
0:48:58 > 0:49:01that affected either his skull or his pelvis.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03Amazing.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05BELL TOLLS
0:49:07 > 0:49:11So the exact details of Jumbo's death are still rather puzzling.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17While the rest of the world may have forgotten Jumbo's story,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21in the town where he died, it's a proud part of their history.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26The Elgin County Museum is almost a shrine to Jumbo's memory,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29and I'm hoping its curator, Mike Baker,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33will have some clues to help explain exactly how Jumbo died.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37This group of things that were found in his stomach
0:49:37 > 0:49:40while the skin and the bones are being prepared for mounting -
0:49:40 > 0:49:42there's a little miniature pig at the back,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44which is actually a match safe,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47a charm bracelet, a button,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49a collar stud and a tooth...
0:49:49 > 0:49:51- LAUGHING:- I don't want to think about how he got a tooth!
0:49:51 > 0:49:54But they're all part of the many, many things
0:49:54 > 0:49:57they found in Jumbo's stomach, including quite a few coins.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59- Coins?- Yes, maybe as many as 300.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04Mostly pennies. Pennies that I think were supposed to have gone to Scott
0:50:04 > 0:50:08as payment for a ride, and then not quite making it to Scott.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11Jumbo would have grabbed them with his trunk,
0:50:11 > 0:50:15cos I think he was a bit of a kleptomaniac with that trunk.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17And these? What are these?
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Well, these appear to be photographs of the locomotive
0:50:20 > 0:50:21that collided with him.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24- The very one? - That brought about his death, yeah.
0:50:24 > 0:50:25Not too many years later.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27And the most interesting feature
0:50:27 > 0:50:30is the little tin elephant that someone has cut out,
0:50:30 > 0:50:34- to say, "Yes, this is the locomotive that got Jumbo."- Really?
0:50:34 > 0:50:36Not sure why they're proud of that,
0:50:36 > 0:50:38but they were keen to mark it anyway.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Among all this memorabilia
0:50:44 > 0:50:48is a photograph taken just after Jumbo's death.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58This is a much-enlarged version
0:50:58 > 0:51:00of the photo that you often see of poor, dead Jumbo.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03It's taken about a day after the accident.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05It's Scott at his head
0:51:05 > 0:51:09and one of the owners of the circus, Hutchinson, lying against him.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11And it's interesting to see in this photograph...
0:51:11 > 0:51:16Now that it's blown up, you can see a series of abrasions on his hide
0:51:16 > 0:51:20and it matches up very nicely with the one good graphic
0:51:20 > 0:51:22from soon after the collision.
0:51:24 > 0:51:29Mike has come across an image of Jumbo that I've not seen before.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32It was discovered in an antique print gallery in Washington,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35and is now on loan to the museum,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39and it is the final piece of the Jumbo jigsaw.
0:51:41 > 0:51:46It's probably the best depiction of the actual collision with Jumbo.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49This was done by an artist possibly on the site
0:51:49 > 0:51:51about three days after the collision.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54It matches very nicely with the photographic evidence,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57and you can see the engine coming up behind Jumbo,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00so causing the abrasions that you can see in the enlarged photograph.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04It's the same point of contact.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08So here is Matthew Scott, having failed to signal to the locomotive.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11That is the circus train with the boxcar
0:52:11 > 0:52:13- that Jumbo was going to get into... - Yep.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18..and the locomotive has outrun him and hit him in the rear,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21- and that's the end of poor Jumbo. - Exactly.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24- Not what Barnum said. - No, not at all.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28So Barnum's story was a complete invention.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30Pure bunkum, as you would probably say.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32DAVID CHUCKLES
0:52:35 > 0:52:39With no evidence of fractures on Jumbo's bones,
0:52:39 > 0:52:43it seems the most likely cause of death was internal bleeding.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46So it's unlikely that Jumbo died instantly,
0:52:46 > 0:52:51giving Scott time to say goodbye to his much-loved elephant.
0:53:01 > 0:53:06Eyewitness accounts report that Scott rushed to Jumbo's side
0:53:06 > 0:53:10and watched as he took one last breath and died.
0:53:12 > 0:53:17His devoted keeper is said to have "wept inconsolably"
0:53:17 > 0:53:19at the loss of his best friend.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Matthew Scott never really recovered
0:53:23 > 0:53:25from the death of his beloved elephant.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28He hung around the circus for some time
0:53:28 > 0:53:33and then Barnum, in a business-like and brisk way, paid him off
0:53:33 > 0:53:38and had Jumbo's body stuffed and mounted and paraded.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46Jumbo was just 24 when he died.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54His death became front-page news around the world.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58The young elephant who had
0:53:58 > 0:54:00arrived at London Zoo as an orphan
0:54:00 > 0:54:02had become a hugely popular
0:54:02 > 0:54:04and much-loved superstar.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12He gave a great number of people enormous pleasure
0:54:12 > 0:54:16and a vivid, unforgettable impression of the magnificence
0:54:16 > 0:54:20of the natural world that lay far beyond European cities.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24But we now know that the life he led
0:54:24 > 0:54:27was not the right life for an elephant.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Keeping elephants locked up on their own
0:54:34 > 0:54:38goes against everything that they've evolved to be.
0:54:38 > 0:54:44Not having any choice, not having anything different
0:54:44 > 0:54:47would be really detrimental to their wellbeing,
0:54:47 > 0:54:49just like it's bad for people.
0:54:58 > 0:54:59In the case of Jumbo,
0:54:59 > 0:55:05I don't think there's anything worse than incarcerating an elephant.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08A really, really tragic life lost.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Awful.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20Maybe it's remarkable he survived as long as he did,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23in the conditions that elephants were kept in at the time,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26because no-one really knew how to care for an African elephant.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28They were still mysterious, exotic animals
0:55:28 > 0:55:30from deepest, darkest Africa.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41We do have the choice of how we take care of elephants,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43wherever they are, and Jumbo's a good case
0:55:43 > 0:55:46of where we did not take good care of an elephant,
0:55:46 > 0:55:47and we can learn from that.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Thankfully, we now have a much deeper understanding
0:56:00 > 0:56:02of the needs of elephants.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06We've come to realise that they should always be in the company
0:56:06 > 0:56:11of their own kind so that they can build lasting relationships.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15And they need space to live their lives.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20But many held in captivity today do not have that space.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25130 years after Jumbo was killed, there's good news.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Circuses across Europe and America
0:56:30 > 0:56:34are sending their performing elephants into retirement.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39Of course, the elephants can't be returned to the wild -
0:56:39 > 0:56:41they were captured too young
0:56:41 > 0:56:45to have learned the skills necessary to survive out there.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48But, thankfully, there are sanctuaries,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50like this one in Tennessee.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Here, there are great areas of woodland,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02where the elephants can roam and do what they want to do,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04and not what human beings tell them to do.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Jumbo's life was cut cruelly short
0:57:16 > 0:57:19but these elephants will have a chance
0:57:19 > 0:57:23of having a long and peaceful end to theirs.