List of Individual Elephants - G - O

O

• Hannibal's war elephants which crossed the Alps in 218 BC, 37 elephants in the Second Punic War. Surus (the Syrian) is mentioned as the bravest elephant in the army by Marcus Porcius Cato, the elder in his book Origines.
• Hanno the elephant, pet elephant of Pope Leo X
• Hansken, toured many European countries from 1637 to 1655 demonstrating circus tricks
• Hattie of New York City's Central Park Zoo, in 1903 was described as the "most intelligent of all elephants"
• Icy Mike, an elephant that lived and died on Mount Kenya, 4.4 km (14,000 ft) above sea level. This is unusual as it demands high energy consumption.
• John L. Sullivan (1860? – 1932), the boxing elephant in Adam Forepaugh's circus. In 1922, he made a pilgrimage from Madison Square Garden to the Elephant Hotel in Somers, New York to pay tribute to Old Bet the elephant.
• Jumbo, P. T. Barnum's elephant whose name is the origin of the word jumbo (meaning "very large" or "over-sized"). The African elephant was given the name Jumbo by zookeepers at the London Zoo. The name was most likely derived from the Swahili word jumbe meaning "chief". The Tufts University mascot is named after Jumbo. In Mysore, India Vijayadashami Elephant procession during Dasara is called as Jumbo Savari (referred to as Jumbo Savari by the British during their control of Mysore State). The original name to this procession is Jumbi Savari (going to the Banni(Shami)tree). Now Goddess Chamundeshwari is taken in procession on an Elephant. But the "Jumbo" name is still intact.
• Jumbo was the name of another elephant, used by John Hoyte et al. to cross the Alps in 1959 to retrace Hannibal's march across the Alps.
• Kandula, the most famous elephant of Sri Lanka was given to an infant prince Dutugemunu (or Dushtagamini) in the 2nd century BC. The king and his elephant grew up together. A Sri Lankan elephant born November 25, 2001, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. is named after Kandula.
• Kesavan, an Indian elephant which was associated with the Guruvayur temple in Kerala, India. The elephant was known for its extremely devout behaviour.
• The Kilimanjaro Elephant, recognized for the enormousness of its tusks. His tusks weighed 237 and 225 lb, and no other tusk in history ever went over 190 lb. Each are more than ten feet long and two feet in circumference at the base. It was thought (but not known) that he was killed on the northern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in 1898. The British Museum of Natural History bought the pair of tusks in 1932, and after an attempt was made to steal them in 1937, they were taken off exhibit. Inspiration for Mike Resnick's book Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future.
• Kolakolli, an Indian rogue elephant from Peppara sanctuary that died in captivity in 2006.
• Lallah Rookh, an elephant with Dan Rice's circus. She died in 1860 soon after swimming across the Ohio River.
• Lin Wang, a Burmese elephant that served with the Chinese Expeditionary Force during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and later moved to Taiwan with the Kuomintang army. Lin Wang became a fond childhood memory among many Taiwanese. When he died in 2003, he was (and still is) the longest-living captive elephant at 86.
• Mahmoud, the lead elephant in the army of Abraha, which attacked the Kaaba in Mecca. Thus, the year became known as the Year of the Elephant and provided a historical ready-reference for the birth date of the prophet Muhammad of the Muslim religion.
• Mamie, an African elephant at the Knoxville Zoo who painted. She died March 10, 2006 at 45 years old.
• Mary a.k.a. "Mighty Mary" and "Murderous Mary", a circus elephant executed on September 13, 1916 in Erwin, Tennessee. She was hanged by a railroad derrick car at the Clinchfield Railroad yard. This is the only known elephant hanging in history. Mary, who toured with the Sparks World Famous Shows circus, killed her inexperienced keeper, Walter "Red" Eldridge, on September 12, 1916 during a circus parade in Kingsport, Tennessee. Eldridge had supposedly hit Mary's tusk or ear when she wandered from the parade line to eat a piece of discarded watermelon.
• Modoc,an Indian Elephant who performed in the North Circus in New York,N.Y., and later starred on Ralph Helfer's famous 1960's show,Daktari. Two books involve her, The Beauty of the Beasts, and Modoc, both by Ralph Helfer.
• Mona - euthanized June 21, 2007 at the Birmingham Zoo in Birmingham, Alabama. Thought, at 60, to have been the oldest Asian elephant in the United States. After the death of her companion, Susie, Mona's health and living conditions were the subject of a long campaign to have her transferred out of the zoo to a sanctuary.
• Norma Jean, struck by lightning, c. 1972, during a circus parade in Oquawka, Illinois. She was buried where she died, and a marker now lies on this spot.
• Old Bet, an early American circus elephant owned by Hachaliah Bailey. On July 24, 1816, she was shot and killed while on tour near Alfred, Maine by a farmer who thought it sinful for poor people to waste money on a travelling circus. Old Bet's owner responded by building a three story memorial called the Elephant Hotel which now serves as a town hall.