Ringling Bros. circus closing show after 146 years

Yahoo – AFP, Olivia Hampton, January 15, 2017

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus executives cited high operating costs
and declining ticket sales as some factors in the decision to close after
146 years (AFP Photo/EMMANUEL DUNAND)

Washington (AFP) - Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Saturday it will host its final show in May, ending "The Greatest Show on Earth" after 146 years.

Company executives cited high operating costs and declining ticket sales after the traveling American circus retired its popular elephants as reasons for drawing the curtain on a celebrated spectacle that traces its origins to politician and showman P.T. Barnum's first show in 1871.

Animal rights groups cheered the move as a success story following decades of activism against the use of animals in the circus.

Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of show producer Feld Entertainment, said he and his family came to the "difficult" decision to end the circus "after much evaluation and deliberation."

"Nearly 50 years ago, my father founded our company with the acquisition of Ringling Bros.," he said in a statement on the group's website."

"The circus and its people have continually been a source of inspiration and joy to my family and me, which is why this was such a tough business decision to make."

The group has a total of 30 stops scheduled on its 2017 tour.

The final "Circus XTREME" show will take place at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island on May 7, while the group's "Out Of This World" tour will take place May 21 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.

Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of show producer Feld Entertainment, said he

and his family made the "difficult" decision to end the circus "after much evaluation

and deliberation" (AFP Photo/EMMANUEL DUNAND)

Freak show origins

Although Barnum's first show took place decades before, it was not until 1919 that a group started by five Wisconsin brothers, Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows, merged with Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth.

While the Ringling brothers had been better known for traditional circus fare, Barnum was dubbed the "Prince of Humbugs," known as a shameless promoter of incredible hoaxes, freak shows and zoological curiosities.

One such object was the Fiji mermaid, or Feejee mermaid, which was in fact no less than the head and torso of a monkey sewn to the body and tail of a fish.

Barnum launched his traveling circus after fires destroyed his Barnum's American Museum. Two whales were boiled alive in their tanks during one of the fires.

In 1881, Barnum teamed up with James Bailey to run their "Greatest Show on Earth," making a fortune along the way.

In May 2015 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus retired its performing 

elephants after major criticism from animal rights groups (AFP Photo/

EMMANUEL DUNAND)

Animal rights controversies

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals cheered Ringling's latest decision as the end of an era, and called for other circuses to follow their lead.

"After 36 years of PETA protests, which have awoken the world to the plight of animals in captivity, PETA heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on Earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times," the group's president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, joined in.

"A major moment as big brands that harm animals fade away and more humane businesses emerge I applaud @RinglingBros announcement," he tweeted.

In May 2015, the circus retired its performing elephants after major criticism from animal rights groups, including widely circulated videos from PETA that showed a male handler hitting elephants with an ankus, or pointed stick.

The Ringling Brothers herd was the largest in the Western hemisphere for Asian elephants, listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which says 40,000-50,000 exist in the world in highly fragmented populations.

"It is sad. You feel it is the end of an era," long-time trainer Trudy Williams told AFP at the time.

Ringling Brothers was also embroiled in a 14-year lawsuit in which animal rights groups alleged the circus was mistreating its herd.

The case was eventually thrown out after a lead witness was found to have been paid for his testimony by animal rights groups.

By 2014, the plaintiffs, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society, had been ordered to pay the circus $25 million to reimburse its legal fees.

An elderly elephant named Mysore gets a pedicure at the Ringling Bros. and

Barnum and Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City, Florida on March 8,

2016 (AFP Photo/Kerry Sheridan)

Related Article:

Circus elephants' retirement home promises pampered life

Chinese approve Dutch panda preparations

DutchNews, January 12, 2017

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Chinese zoo inspectors have approved the new panda compound at Ouwehands Dierenpark in Rhenen, NOS writes. 

The zoo, which is hoping to welcome a pair of giant panda’s from China in the spring, spent €7m on the compound which was reportedly judged by the Chinese as one of the most beautiful they had seen so far. An earlier version did not pass muster but was improved to meet the exacting standards of the Chinese zoo authorities.

‘It’s an incredibly beautiful, traditionally Chinese building. We really went all out on it,’ zoo director Robin de Lange told the broadcaster. 

Ouwehands Dierenpark had been trying to persuade the Chinese to lend them a pair of pandas for 15 years. A royal state visit to China in 2015 speeded up matters. The zoo is hoping that Wu Wen (Beautiful Powerful Cloud) and Xing Ya (Elegant Star) will be feeling sufficiently at home to produce offspring. 

The cost of the new compound plus the €900,000 a year fee means that entrance tickets will be more expensive: visitors will be paying a so-called ‘panda tax’, NOS said.

Oh deer: monkey caught in flagrante delict-doe

Yahoo – AFP, January 10, 2017

Picture released on January 10, 2017 by the Issekinicho publishing house shows
 an inter-species sexual behaviour between a male Japanese macaque and female
sika deer, in Yakushimaru, Japan (AFP Photo/Alexandre Bonnefoy)

Paris (AFP) - Scientists on Tuesday revealed the "highly unusual" behaviour of a male monkey filmed trying to have sex with female deer in Japan -- a rare case of inter-species nookie.

Sex between animals from different species is uncommon, but exceptional cases are known to occur, chiefly in domesticated and captive animals, scientists reported in the journal Primates.

Mating is usually driven by the need to procreate, while sex across the species line is mostly fruitless or yields sterile offspring.

For the new study -- only the second on the phenomenon of inter-species sex -- a Japanese macaque or "snow monkey" was filmed mounting at least two female Sika deer much larger than itself.

Without penetration, the young monkey makes sexual movements while riding on the does' backs on Japan's Yakushima Island.

On some occasions its impertinence was tolerated but at other times the deer bolted and ran. The monkey ejaculated on the backs of the does, which licked the seminal fluid, researchers said.

"No ambiguity is possible, it is clearly sexual behaviour," study co-author Marie Pele of the University of Strasbourg, France, told AFP.

Furthermore, the monkey appeared to "guard" the targets of its affection, chasing away other male macaques.

The scientists speculated the behaviour may be driven by "mate deprivation" in a community where competition for females is stiff, boosted by a surge of hormones in the breeding season.

"Sometimes young males, like the one in the study, do not have access to females in their social group as these are claimed by older males," said Pele.

"This young macaque... did not have access to females, but was very excited. It took advantage of the presence of the doe."

Snow monkeys and Sika deer live in close proximity at Yakushima -- the deer eat food the monkeys drop from the trees, and sometimes feed on their faeces.

The team said further study is necessary to understand the origins of interspecies sexual behaviour, including zoophilia -- when humans are sexually attracted to animals.

The only other published scientific study on inter-species sexual behaviour was the much-publicised 2014 report of fur seals forcing themselves on penguins in Antarctica, the authors said.

A video of the monkey and the deer can be seen here: http://www.edge-cdn.net/video_1106810?playerskin=37016