Tiger Fangs is a 1943 American adventure / thriller film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Frank Buck and June Duprez . It was distributed Producers Releasing Corporation . The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Palmentola .
76-571: Frank Buck tangles with Nazis who have been doping tigers in Malaya, thereby making man-eaters of them. With the cats on a rampage, rubber production is seriously curtailed and the Allied war effort jeopardized. Buck and his associates, Peter Jeremy, Geoffrey MacCardle and Linda McCardle, thwart the Teutonic malefactors: the villainous Nazi Dr. Lang ( Arno Frey ) and his portly accomplice Henry Gratz. Thereafter, life
152-431: A La Mesa, California , couple who shared it with the zoo. King Tut appeared in several films, television shows, and theater productions, and was the "official greeter" of the zoo for decades, sitting on a perch inside the entrance to squawk at guests Following King Tut's death in 1990, a bronze statue of the cockatoo was placed in the location of its longtime perch and remains there today, its plaque indicating that
228-500: A 15-part serial film that was the only picture in which he did not play himself. Prior to and during the making of Jungle Menace , Buck was represented by Hollywood literary agent H.N. Swanson . During 1938, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus made Buck a lucrative offer to tour as their main attraction, and to enter the show astride an elephant. He refused to join the American Federation of Actors , stating that he
304-531: A 23-foot reticulated python named Diablo that became famous when it would not eat and had to be regularly force-fed by a team of men using a feeding tube attached to a meat grinder , a spectacle that attracted thousands of onlookers and became a paid event until the snake's death in 1928. Buck began his directorship of the San Diego Zoo on June 13, 1923, signed to a three-year contract at an annual salary of $ 4,000 (equivalent to about $ 55,500 in 2015). He
380-513: A Lifetime , co-authored by Fraser, and narrated Jungle Cavalcade , a compilation of footage from his first three films. He also appeared in Jacaré (1942) and starred in Tiger Fangs (1943). His eighth and final book, Jungle Animals , again co-authored by Fraser, was published in 1945 and was intended for schoolchildren grades five to eight. Buck's final film role was an appearance as himself in
456-578: A Lifetime . The Frank Buck Zoo in Buck's hometown of Gainesville, Texas , is named after him. According to Buck, in 1911 Buck won $ 3,500 in a poker game and decided to go abroad for the first time, traveling to Brazil without his wife. According to a 1957 article about Buck's life, "For years he avoided telling about the poker game that staked him to his first venture in South America, instead claiming he had skimped and saved as an assistant taxidermist in
532-478: A bestseller and earned him the nickname Frank "Bring 'Em Back Alive" Buck. He arranged for a film crew to accompany him on his next collecting expedition to Asia in order to create a film of the same title , which was released in 1932 and starred Buck as himself. RKO Pictures created a triplet of financially lucrative films in the early 1930s that all dramatized "man versus ape" encounters: Ingagi (1930), Bring 'Em Back Alive and finally King Kong (1933). He
608-501: A bestseller. Between 1932 and 1943 he starred in seven adventure films based on his exploits, most of which featured staged "fights to the death" with various wild beasts. He was also briefly a director of the San Diego Zoo , displayed wild animals at the 1933–34 Century of Progress exhibition and 1939 New York World's Fair , toured with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus , and co-authored an autobiography, 1941's All in
684-480: A film actor, director, and producer. Beginning in the 1910s he made many expeditions into Asia for the purpose of hunting and collecting exotic animals, bringing over 100,000 live specimens back to the United States and elsewhere for zoos and circuses and earning a reputation as an adventurer. He co-authored seven books chronicling or based on his expeditions, beginning with 1930's Bring 'Em Back Alive , which became
760-447: A foot longer than usual, and their abdomens almost touched the ground. I was afraid they were doomed. We mixed Epsom salts with bran and, by using alfalfa meal, at last caused their bowels to move and relieved them of much of the edema . Some time passed before they were able to use their trunks but eventually they were as well as ever." Returning from a trip to San Francisco a few months later, Wegeforth found that Buck had oiled
836-592: A four-day horse trek to Mount Cook. The first surviving releases were made in the Aoraki / Mount Cook region and these animals gradually spread over much of the South Island . In New Zealand, chamois hunting is unrestricted and even encouraged by the Department of Conservation to limit the animal's impact on New Zealand's native alpine flora . New Zealand chamois tend to weigh about 20% less than European individuals of
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#1732869277646912-409: A good sense of melodramatic action, and it is Mr. Buck himself who gives the stand-out performance. The jungle fellow is a right natural actor.” This article about an adventure film is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Frank Buck (animal collector) Frank Howard Buck (March 17, 1884 – March 25, 1950) was an American hunter, animal collector, and author, as well as
988-632: A hunter stalking chamois from above is less likely to be observed and more likely to be successful. The tuft of hair from the back of the neck, the gamsbart (chamois "beard"), is traditionally worn as a decoration on hats throughout the alpine countries. Chamois leather, traditionally made from the hide of the chamois, is very smooth and absorbent and is favoured in cleaning, buffing, and polishing because it produces no scratching. Modern chamois leather may still be made from chamois hides, but hides of deer or domestic goats or sheep are much more commonly used. An artificial fabric known as "chamois"
1064-520: A more modern method of stomach tube or feeding the meat through a tube." On February 20, 1924, superior court judge Charles Andrews ruled against Buck and ordered him to pay court costs of $ 24 (equivalent to about $ 333 in 2015). In his 1941 autobiography All in a Lifetime , Buck did not mention his clashes with the Zoological Society board, his firing, or the subsequent lawsuit. He did, however, claim that "while acting as temporary director of
1140-490: A museum." Bringing back exotic birds to New York, he was surprised by the profits he was able to obtain from their sale. He then traveled to Singapore , beginning a string of animal collecting expeditions to various parts of Asia. Leading treks into the jungles, Buck learned to build traps and snares to safely catch animals so he could sell them to zoos and circuses worldwide. After an expedition, he would usually accompany his catches on board ship, helping to ensure they survived
1216-520: A net profit of $ 6,000, and three weeks later went back to Singapore. He also states that after the close of the San Francisco world's fair he went to work as Director of Publicity and Promotion for Mack Sennett Studio for seven months but "it was the sunrises over the Malayan jungle that I missed...I headed back for Singapore, headed for everything the jungle and life could do for me." According to Buck he
1292-657: A possible candidate for the position. Buck was headed to India at the time, and struck an agreement with the Zoological Society's board for him to collect some animals for the zoo and then come to San Diego to become its director. It was strongly hoped that his acquisitions would include elephants, an animal the Society, and particularly Wegeforth, had been attempting to add to the zoo's collection for some time. Buck found two female Asian elephants in Calcutta named "Empress" and "Queenie" that were trained to work, and bought them for
1368-596: A representative of Osaka Shosen Kaisha , a Japanese-owned steamship company. His work was under the editorship of M. Franklin Kline. According to two passport applications in the archives of the U.S. Department of State, Buck was employed as a traveling agent for Osaka Shosen Kaisha's Official Guide for Shippers and Travelers to the Principal Ports of the World , for the purpose of editorial research and "securing advertisements for
1444-511: A special dispensation to introduce Gargantua the gorilla without registering as an actor. In conjunction with his 1939 World's Fair exhibit, Buck released a sixth book, Animals Are Like That , coauthored with Carol Weld . World War II temporarily halted Buck's expeditions to Asia, but his popularity kept him busy on the lecture circuit and making guest appearances on radio. During the war years he continued to publish books and star in films: In 1941 he published an autobiography , All in
1520-408: A very small bovid. A fully grown chamois reaches a height of 70–80 cm (28–31 in) and measures 107–137 cm (42–54 in). Males, which weigh 30–60 kg (66–132 lb), are slightly larger than females, which weigh 25–45 kg (55–99 lb). Both males and females have short, straightish horns which are hooked backwards near the tip, the horn of the male being thicker. In summer,
1596-471: A wild animal exhibit, Frank Buck's Jungle Camp, for Chicago's Century of Progress exhibition in 1934. More than two million people visited Buck's reproduction of the camp he and his native assistants lived in while collecting animals in British Malaya . The University of Chicago holds three souvenir booklets from the fair, including one for Frank Buck's Adventurer's Club for kids. Another pamphlet promises
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#17328692776461672-450: Is safe once again in the jungle. “Juves should find this Frank Buck actioner exciting. It's a fiction piece, and not the usual jungle travelogue… June Duprez is as attractive a biologist as one could hope to meet up with in the middle of the jungle.” “The animal shots are eye-filling, as usual, and especially well photographed…They're convincing enough…to keep the younger generation glued to movie house seats. Sam Newfield directed with
1748-925: The Alps , the Apennines , the Dinarides , the Tatra to the Carpathian Mountains , the Balkan Mountains , the Rila – Rhodope massif, Pindus , the northeastern mountains of Turkey , and the Caucasus . It has also been introduced to the South Island of New Zealand . Some subspecies of chamois are strictly protected in the EU under the European Habitats Directive . The chamois is
1824-874: The Evening Post , "Robison put Buck back on the next steamer leaving for the Far East. With World War I on and the European markets closed, zoos, circuses, and dealers everywhere were looking to the Robison firm for supply." In his life story, coauthored by Ferrin Fraser , All In a Lifetime (1941), Buck claims his first Asian animal collecting trip was in "late 1912 and early 1913." He states that from this first shipment he sold tigers and birds to Dr. Hornaday , leopards and pythons to Foley & Burke Carnival Company, and "the remaining birds to Robinson [sic] Bird Store and other dealers" for
1900-601: The United States Department of Health for 500 rhesus monkeys from India at $ 20 each. According to the Saturday Evening Post in 1953, "World War I was on and the monkeys were vitally needed for trench-gas experiments. But Ansel Robison could not seem to get any action out of his agents in India. But the order had to be filled; it was a patriotic necessity. Ansel began making preparations to go to India." After
1976-697: The Zoological Society's Gardens , Regent's Park, London, accepted an invitation from the New Zealand Government to deliver a consignment of chamois (two bucks and six does) to the colony. They arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on 23 January 1907, on board SS Turakina . From Wellington the chamois were transhipped to the Manaroa and conveyed to Lyttelton, then by rail to Fairlie in South Canterbury and
2052-403: The "least dishonest and undependable among as unreliable, cheating, and lying a group of traders as I ever contacted, before or since... Atool Acooli was the father of the present Acooli brothers, the best bird merchants in India." According to Robison, Buck traveled on Robison-financed animal collecting trips until 1925. The Buck-to-Robison pipeline provided "elephants to circuses, llamas for
2128-567: The 1940s, Frank Buck claimed to have captured 49 elephants, 60 tigers , 63 leopards , 20 hyenas , 52 orangutans, 100 gibbons , 20 tapirs , 120 Asiatic antelope and deer , 9 pigmy water buffalo , a pair of gaurs , 5 babirusa , 18 African antelope, 40 wild goats and sheep , 11 camels , 2 giraffes , 40 kangaroos and wallabies , 5 Indian rhinoceros , 60 bears , 90 pythons , 10 king cobras , 25 giant monitor lizards , 15 crocodiles , more than 500 different species of other mammals, and more than 100,000 wild birds. Sultan Ibrahim of Johor
2204-659: The 1949 Abbott and Costello comedy Africa Screams . His last recorded performance was Tiger , a 1950 children's record adapting two stories from Bring 'Em Back Alive . Buck had bylines in the Saturday Evening Post , Collier's , and the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine . His endorsement deals included tires, toys, clothing, Pepsodent , Dodge automobiles , Armour meats , Stevens buckhorn rifles , Camel cigarettes , and Cream of Kentucky whiskey . Chicago: Buck furnished
2280-514: The 1950's According to the Massapequa Post , "Back then, the land where the mall now stands was thickly wooded, vacant and owned by a New York water company. The buildings that housed the animals were constructed with plain concrete blocks and wood-gabled roofs. There was a huge two story Tudor-style building close to the road" that housed reptiles and birds. According to Texas Highways magazine, "Buck had his staff grow mustaches and wear
2356-562: The Director of Concessions and Admissions, Buck was there to drum up business for "the Zone" of the world's fair, which was the amusement-park-style "midway of that time". According to the San Francisco Examiner in 1968, Robison initially "gave Buck ideas on the use of tropical birds for added interest at the exposition." Buck began to visit frequently to talk to Ansel Robison and look at
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2432-508: The Jungle (1935), also co-authored with Fraser, was a work of fiction but was based on Buck's experiences. While these books and films made Buck world-famous, he later remarked that he was prouder of his 1936 elementary school reader, On Jungle Trails , saying "Wherever I go, children mention this book to me and tell me how much they learned about animals and the jungle from it." Buck next starred as Jack Hardy in 1937's Jungle Menace (1937),
2508-537: The Robison-Buck connection was severed in 1925. According to one analysis, Buck's sensitivity to beauty has been illustrated by "Buck also did not find it necessary to make 'macho' choices when he divulged his favorite animal list...the fairy-bluebird —with its electric blue and coal black plumage—of the Malaysian Islands was irresistible to him. Very rare, the bird is shy and lives in the deepest jungles, but has
2584-460: The San Diego Zoo", he had invented a method of force-feeding snakes, the means "by which captive pythons are mainly fed today". He made one subsequent contribution to the zoo, though indirectly: Having returned to his animal-collecting career, in 1925 he brought a shipment of animals to San Diego including a salmon-crested cockatoo named King Tut from the Maluku Islands . The bird was sold to
2660-456: The animal with calomel , and that the doctor's experiments in force-feeding snakes with a sausage stuffer had resulted in the deaths of 150 of the reptiles. Wegeforth had in fact administered calomel tablets to a tiger suffering an intestinal ailment in August 1923, and in his memoirs described experimenting with methods of force-feeding Diablo the python before coming up with the idea to tube-feed
2736-592: The animals arrive and are taken up to the compound off the Orchard Road , to await the arrival of many more specimens, the result of a personal visit to India , Burma , and elsewhere, when all are placed aboard a ship at Singapore and taken to America. According to Robison, after WWI, German animal traders re-entered the market and operated more cheaply than Americans, and by 1925, the revised seaman's laws made it "prohibitively expensive" to transport animals on American ships. Robison largely ended his import business, and
2812-498: The animals until he was virtually "haunting the place". In late summer 1915 an "enormous orangutan" came from Java on a Russian tramp steamer otherwise loaded with sugar. Robison bought the steamer's animal cargo and rapidly sold the constrictor snake to a circus, but could not seem to find a buyer for the orangutan. Buck told him that at the Exposition Zone there was a "fast-talking carnival man named Don Carlos, whose concession
2888-870: The attention of unmated females. An impregnated female undergoes a gestation period of 170 days, after which a single kid is usually born in May or early June. On rare occasions, twins may be born. If a mother is killed, other females in the herd may try to raise the young. Kids are weaned at six months of age and are fully grown by one year of age, but do not reach sexual maturity until they are three to four years old, although some females may mate at as early two years old. At sexual maturity, young males are forced out of their mother's herds by dominant males (who sometimes kill them), to wander somewhat nomadically until they can establish themselves as mature breeding specimens at eight to nine years of age. Chamois eat various types of vegetation, including highland grasses and herbs during
2964-467: The biggest orangutan in the world, the two biggest pythons in the world, "dragon lizards", Malayan honey bears , king cobras , 500 monkeys, 50 species of snakes, and "rare and beautiful birds from India." Long Island, New York: After the fair closed, he relocated the camp to a compound he created in Amityville, New York . Buck's Long Island Zoo, located near Massapequa, seemingly existed from 1934 to
3040-518: The bird "was brought from Indonesia in 1925 by Frank Buck". By the end of the 1920s Buck claimed he was the world's leading supplier of wild animals. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 left him penniless, but friends lent him $ 6,000 and he was soon doing profitable work again. When Chicago radio and newsreel personality Floyd Gibbons suggested that Buck write about his animal collecting adventures, he collaborated with journalist Edward Anthony to co-author Bring 'Em Back Alive (1930), which became
3116-503: The board by constructing the cage without their knowledge", boasting that he would continue to build whatever cages he considered proper "with or without the consent of the board". He had also been instructed to build an enclosure for a zebu that had been allowed to wander the zoo grounds, but apparently ignored the directive. According to Wegeforth, Buck made business deals with other zoos and animal collectors that were mismanaged or undocumented, and ordered expensive custom nameplates for
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3192-512: The camp. Buck's business partner and manager, T.A. Loveland, ran the zoo while Buck was busy traveling, writing, filming movies and giving lectures." Chamois Capra rupicapra Linnaeus, 1758 The chamois ( / ˈ ʃ æ m w ɑː / ) ( Rupicapra rupicapra ) or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to the mountains in Southern Europe , from the Pyrenees ,
3268-516: The chamois spends the summer months in alpine meadows above the tree line, but moves to elevations of around 800 m (2,600 ft) to spend the winter in pine-dominated forests. Alpine chamois arrived in New Zealand in 1907 as a gift from the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph I in exchange for specimens of living ferns, rare birds and lizards. Albert E. L. Bertling, formerly head keeper of
3344-470: The close of the fair, Buck "announced he was taking a publicity job with a steamship company" or was "going to the Orient as correspondent for a magazine," heading out shortly for Calcutta. Robison commissioned Buck "to keep his eyes open for monkeys". Buck was initially reluctant, stating even if he were able to find so many rhesus monkeys, he had no money to buy or ship them. Robison told Buck, "I'll worry about
3420-536: The director of Wild Cargo and later a renowned wildlife documentarian, wrote about the filming in his 1963 autobiography. He recalled being bewildered by Buck's disinterest in "equipment" for the shoot, Buck's disdain for naturalistic observation of wildlife, and by Buck's suggestion that an orangutan fight a tiger on film. Denis described the Indian rhino that was shipped to Buck's "jungle camp" in Johor Bahru (nowhere near
3496-673: The elephants a second time. They recovered again, but Buck was immediately fired and left San Diego after only three months as director of the zoo, the board of directors charging that he "couldn't be trusted". Buck promptly sued the board of directors for breach of contract , saying he had given up his lucrative animal collecting business to work in San Diego and had suffered damage to his reputation. He sought $ 12,500 in salary which he would have received in his three-year contract, as well as $ 10,000 in damages (a total equivalent to about $ 312,285 in 2015). He sued Wegeforth personally, and when
3572-643: The elephants and asking for other animals instead! I was dumbfounded when I learned about this on the circus' arrival—hardly adequate thanks for Mr. Ringling's trouble in transporting them across the continent for us. Of course, they did not carry a side line of animals around with them like spare tires but they did give us a tiger , a zebra , and a camel ." The final straw involved an incident with Empress and Queenie: Buck believed that their hides appeared dry and cracked and would benefit from "oiling", an old practice in zoos and circuses in which elephants were covered in neatsfoot oil to soften and condition their skin,
3648-476: The end of World War II and his death in 1950. In 1923 Buck was hired as the first full-time director of the San Diego Zoo , but his tenure there was brief and tumultuous. The zoo was still in its early years, having begun as an assortment of animal displays remaining from the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition held in Balboa Park . It had been granted a permanent site in 1921 (an area of about 140 acres in
3724-601: The fur has a rich brown colour which turns to a light grey in winter. Distinct characteristics are white contrasting marks on the sides of the head with pronounced black stripes below the eyes, a white rump and a black stripe along the back. Female chamois and their young live in herds of up to 15 to 30 individuals; adult males tend to live solitarily for most of the year. During the rut (late November/early December in Europe, May in New Zealand ), males engage in fierce battles for
3800-451: The jungle) for the production, and how he calmly wrestled with the corpse of "the large placid old tiger specially hired from a local animal dealer" when it drowned in its pit during filming. During this time Buck was represented by George T. Bye , a New York literary agent . Buck's third book, Fang and Claw (1935), was co-authored with Ferrin Fraser ; for the film adaptation , Buck directed and once again starred. Tim Thompson in
3876-518: The loveliest song." In an interesting coincidence, ornithologist Edward H. Lewis, the founding director of the Catalina Bird Park (and thus someone Buck knew and to whom he had sold birds), also thought the fairy-bluebird of Asia was the most beautiful of birds. As the Oakland Tribune put it, Buck went on to fame as the "dashing, dauntless, devil-may-care hero of the big game world". By
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#17328692776463952-560: The main predators of chamois. Chamois usually use speed and stealthy evasion to escape predators and can run at 50 km/h (31 mph) and can jump 2 m (6 ft 7 in) vertically into the air or over a distance of 6 m (20 ft). The chamois is native to the Pyrenees , the mountains of south and central Europe , Turkey , and the Caucasus . It lives in precipitous, rugged, rocky terrain at moderately high elevations of up to at least 3,600 m (11,800 ft). In Europe,
4028-455: The matter went to court in February 1924 Buck accused Wegeforth of interfering with "practically everything" related to his job, and of conspiring with the board to "belittle and disparage" his efforts as director. Wegeforth accused Buck of incompetence and testified that "the whole character of the man was insubordination ." Buck also claimed that Wegeforth had killed a sick tiger by dosing
4104-413: The money." Six weeks later Robison received a cablegram from Buck in India that he had the monkeys, as well as two Bengal tigers , snakes, rare pheasants and some other birds. Buck added, "Send money." According to Robison: "He didn't know a damn thing about animals...[but] Frank did help, sending monkeys to me for government research...After that I financed all of Frank's trips for 10 years." Per
4180-466: The oil being washed off after a few days. Wegeforth, a physician , took a strong interest in veterinary medicine and personally monitored the health of the animals, and had learned that oiling could cause pneumonia or Bright's disease in elephants. He therefore ordered Buck never to oil Empress and Queenie. Buck oiled them anyway, and according to Wegeforth "they became very piteous-looking creatures, their trunks grew flaccid and seemed about
4256-407: The panther escaped when we were unloading it!' Robison hurried to the docks and together they inched the snarling, frightened cat into an awaiting cage." According to Robison, one day in 1915, Buck visited Robison's shop with an eye to purchasing Lady Gould finches ( Chloebia gouldiae ) from a shipment that Robison had received from Australia. Robison vividly recalled his first sight of Buck: "He
4332-413: The park's northwestern quadrant) and most of its initial exhibits had been built over the following year, with a "grand opening" of the new grounds held on January 1, 1923. The zoo was founded by the Zoological Society of San Diego and managed by its board of directors , with founding board member Frank Stephens having served as the part-time managing director without pay since its beginning. Most of
4408-513: The past seven years. Buck reported satisfaction and acceptable profits if 70 percent of the birds and 80 percent of the animals survived the sea journey from Asia. According to the Free Press reporter: He made Singapore his headquarters, purchasing animals and birds as they arrived in the boats from Java , the Celebes , Borneo , Sumatra and the F.M.S. Gradually the collection grows as one by one
4484-413: The planning and development was being overseen by Society founder and president Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth , who was the driving force behind the zoo's creation. A strong-willed, hands-on president, Wegeforth walked the zoo grounds daily and had a singular vision for its future, with little room for opposing viewpoints. Philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps , who had made several significant donations to
4560-410: The private zoo of Borax Smith , increased the private collection of William Randolph Hearst, provided animals for Wrigley 's bird park on Catalina , Fleischhaker Zoo in San Francisco, and Cecil B. DeMille 's movie The King of Kings ." Buck appears to mention Robison but once in his autobiography, and misspells the name. Perhaps simultaneously, but at least from 1917 to 1920, Buck worked as
4636-691: The publication" on a commission basis. Buck was assigned to visit Japan, China, Hong Kong, Straits Settlements , Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ), India, Java, Dutch East Indies , the Philippines, and British Possessions. Buck does not mention his work traveling to the great ports of Asia for a Japanese steamship company in his 1941 autobiography, perhaps due to the Pacific War . According to the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser , in 1923, Buck said he had made 14 animal collecting trips to Asia over
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#17328692776464712-428: The same age, suggesting that food supplies may be limited. The species R. rupicapra is categorized into seven subspecies: As their meat is considered tasty, chamois are popular game animals. Chamois have two traits that are exploited by hunters: the first is that they are most active in the morning and evening when they feed; the second is that they tend to look for danger originating from below, which means that
4788-470: The same khaki outfit he did. Employees also carried autographed Frank Buck cards, so that when visitors came up and asked "Frank Buck" for an autograph, the employee just handed them a card." According to Hofstra University , which holds an archive of Frank Buck Zoo material, "For a twenty-five cent admissions fee, guests could view the animals, promotional movie posters, and large photographs of Buck's travels. Souvenirs and refreshments could be purchased at
4864-428: The snake using a sausage stuffer. Board member Thomas Faulconer and other witnesses, however, suggested that the sick tiger had died after a suspicious blow to the head, and flatly denied the snake-killing accusation. Wegeforth claimed that Buck himself had mistreated the reptiles, saying that he had "stuffed down, by the most inhuman way of feeding, snake meat down the throat of a boa constrictor instead of using
4940-560: The summer and conifers, barks and needles from trees in winter. Primarily diurnal in activity, they often rest around mid-day and may actively forage during moonlit nights. Chamois can reach an age of 22 years in captivity, although the average recorded age in the wild ranges from 15 to 17 years. Common causes of mortality can include avalanches, epidemics and predation. In the past, the principal predators were Eurasian lynxes , Persian leopards and Golden Jackal , gray wolves , and possibly brown bears and golden eagles , but humans are now
5016-407: The transport to the United States. According to Ansel W. Robison , he both trained and funded the man whom The Rotarian magazine in 1972 called "a sideshow impresario and writer". Robinson, a pet store owner from the third generation of a family of San Francisco animal merchants, recalled from over a distance of some 50 years "the day Buck barked frantically over the telephone, 'Come quick, Ansel,
5092-536: The zoo's animals and exhibits which had to be returned when it was found that Buck had misspelled half of the names. Prior to receiving Empress and Queenie, Wegeforth had struck a deal with John Ringling to acquire elephants from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus ; when Ringling telegraphed that the circus was returning to San Diego and he was bringing the promised elephants, Wegeforth recorded that "without consulting me, [Buck] wired back declining
5168-499: The zoo, suggested that it needed a full-time director and volunteered to pay such a person's salary for three years if Wegeforth could find someone suitable for the job. Wegeforth visited Dr. William Temple Hornaday , director of the New York Zoological Park , hoping Hornaday would recommend someone, but received a cold response. He was surprised, then, to receive a call from Buck saying he had been referred by Hornaday as
5244-446: The zoo. When the elephants arrived in San Diego after a long journey by boat and freight train, Wegeforth and superintendent Harry Edwards rode them through the city streets to the zoo. Buck soon arrived with the rest of the promised animals, including two orangutans , a leopard cub, two gray langurs , two kangaroos , three flamingos , two lion-tailed macaques , two sarus cranes , four demoiselle cranes , assorted geese , and
5320-402: Was "a scientist, not an actor". Though there was a threat of a strike if he did not join the union, he maintained that it would compromise his principles, saying "Don't get me wrong. I'm with the working man. I worked like a dog once myself. And my heart is with the fellow who works. But I don't want some union delegate telling me when to get on and off an elephant." Eventually the union gave Buck
5396-472: Was a good friend of Buck's and frequently assisted him in his animal collecting endeavors. In 1946, after the end of WWII, Buck told The New Yorker he intended to return to animal collecting in Singapore, saying, "You dig the same old-fashioned pits and use the same old-fashioned knives and come back with the same old-fashioned tigers." It is unclear if Buck ever went animal collecting abroad again between
5472-469: Was a slick-looking young fellow. All dressed up. Chamois gloves and spats . A regular fashion plate, and handsome and likable, too." Buck was looking for pets "to keep in his hotel room". Otherwise, at that time, "there was nothing to link him to animals...except a modest taste for finches." Buck, who had formerly been a Chicago newspaperman, worked in publicity for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Hired by Frank Burt,
5548-415: Was also the main feature of Bring 'Em Back Alive , an NBC radio program promoting the film which aired October 30 – December 18, 1932, and July 16 – November 16, 1934. The follow-up book, Wild Cargo (1932), again co-authored with Anthony, also became a bestseller and was adapted into a 1934 film of the same title in which Buck once again portrayed himself and also served as producer . Armand Denis ,
5624-403: Was doing badly." Apparently Don Carlos "had no money", but Buck suggested Robison let Don Carlos use the orangutan on a percentage basis until the end of the exposition "in a few weeks". According to Robison, the orangutan "was a sensation. Within two weeks Carlos brought in $ 750 as full payment for it, plus $ 500 as the pet shop's percentage of the receipts." Meanwhile, Robison had an order from
5700-609: Was enthusiastic at first, telling reporters "We have the best zoo west of Chicago , and we are going to make it even bigger and better." However, Buck, a self-made , solitary, rugged, and independent-minded individual, soon clashed with the board of directors, particularly Wegeforth. Members of the board complained that Buck was unwilling to consult with them on everyday policy and frequently defied their directives; he constructed new cassowary cages of his own design in direct defiance of their orders, they said, and had bragged to board member William Raymenton about "putting one over on
5776-464: Was then involved in animal collecting for the next 16 years. Animal traders of Asia mentioned in Buck's autobiography include Yu Kee, "a Straits-born Chinese who had a godown ...in a little alley way off Cross Street " in Singapore, and Husad Hassan's bird bazaar in Moore Street , the "bazaar of Minas, a Portuguese-Hindu half-caste, on Parsee Church Street," and Atool Accoli. Buck describes Acooli as
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