Hard to find an elephant story to trump Jumbo

How the the tiny calf became England's favourite 'pet'

Jumbo the African elephant: Was bought by a German circus owner who soon sold him on to Europe's oldest menagerie, the Jardin de Plantes in Paris where he was mistreated scandalously.

How times have changed!

Jumbo, an African elephant was a Victorian celebrity. When the Nile explorer and big game hunter Samuel Baker saw Jumbo in Eritrea in 1861, the tiny calf that became England's favourite 'pet' was just a year old. He had been captured in Eritrea by Hamran Arab hunters who had killed his mother. An animal trader herded him and other captives over the Sudan Desert to the port of Suakin on the Red Sea. From there, they were transported in crates by sea and rail to Dresden.