Ellis Stanley Joseph

Ellis Stanley Joseph
Born	Bombay, India
Died	September 16, 1938(1938-09-16) (aged 65–66) United States
Other names	Stanley Ellis Joseph, Ellis Josephs
Occupation(s)	Wildlife Collector and Trader
Years active	1887-1926
Height	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)

Ellis Stanley Joseph was a collector and trader in wildlife in the early part of the 20th century. He was sometimes referred to as "Stanley Ellis Joseph" and also sometimes as "Ellis Josephs".

Biography

Much of what is known of Ellis Joseph's childhood years comes from three lengthy interviews that he gave to newspapers - the Barrier Miner in April 1910 , the Sunday Times (Perth) in July 1912 , and the Sun (Sydney) in September 1912.

In the interview for The Barrier Miner in April 1910, Ellis Joseph said that he was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India to Welsh parents of Jewish religion. (Despite Joseph's own statement on his ethnicity, it is possible that he actually was of Anglo-Indian origin but hid that origin due to the then prevailing racial policies in Australia. Evidence that supports that possibility is his surname 'Joseph' is an Anglo-Indian surname, he was born in India, he was described as having "dark-tanned skin" and his appearance in newspaper photographs. )

The family moved to San Francisco in the United States when he was nine-months old. In 1912, he said that he had lived near Van Ness Avenue and attended the Geary-street Public School.

Joseph gave this account of how he left home in the 1912 newspaper interview .

It was intended that I should be a doctor, but parents propose and boys dispose. I had no liking for carving human animals; I wanted to get out amongst the beasts and birds. It was the can of the wild, I suppose.

So one day when I was 15 and had two dollars I let out from as good a home as there was around Los Angeles. I spent one dollar on traps and half a dollar on birdlime, and I had half a dollar left as capital. Then I worked through to 'Frisco' and when I realised, I had 50 dollars. That is how fate decides.

Well, I was away four years, and my people found I was at Seattle, and they sent my brother up to capture me, which he did, and I had to put in another year at school. But it was no use. You know, some men are just like lichens they stick on one bit of rock; others are like seed that is blown about the world, and perhaps never stay long enough anywhere to germinate.

This 1912 account is similar to an earlier one given in 1910.

Ellis Joseph was a larger than life character, who despite being a physically large man - six feet six inches (1.98m) tall and 21 stone (294lb or 134kg) in weight - was renowned for his seemingly boundless energy.

For most of his adult life, he made his living in the import, export and sale of living creatures, capturing many of them himself on expeditions.

There is no doubt of his genuine enthusiasm for wildlife of all kinds. In an interview he stated, reportedly with a sigh, "If I were a wealthy man, I'd have people collecting animals, for my zoo, instead of me collecting for other people's zoos." But he drove a hard bargain and made large sums of money by trading in wildlife. By the standards of today, his methods of capturing and handling of living creatures would be seen as causing unacceptable suffering, too high an environmental impact, and an excessive death rate.

For some time prior to 1901 and up to 1926, he lived in Australia, when not travelling which he frequently. His travel during these years took him to North America, South America, India, West Africa, and South Africa.

From November 1918 to 1926, Joseph owned a 17-acre estate called "Highfield Hall", which was located in what was then part of Granville but is now within the suburb of Guildford in Sydney. "Highfield Hall" became both a private zoo and a temporary home for animals in transit to or from other countries.

No mention has been found of Joseph ever marrying. It seems unlikely that he did marry or could have any long-term relationship, given his peripatetic lifestyle.

He returned to the United States in 1926. He suffered bad health in his final years and died on 16 September 1938, aged 66 years old.

Wildlife Trading

Early Years

At the age of just 13 years old, Joseph discovered that there was money to be made in trading birds. While on a holiday trip with his father to Panama, he bought some green parrots at Central American ports and sold these at a profit when he returned to San Francisco.

He left home at 15 and made his living trapping and selling birds on the US West Coast, also making a trip to Corinto, in Nicaragua to obtain birds. After a brief interlude during which he was returned to his home and to school, he once again left home at 17 years of age and traded - by his own account - birds from Mexico to Seatle and Tacoma.

It seems that it was trading in birds from the Americas that brought him to Australia but, during an interview in 1910, he said that he also had held other jobs during those early years, including as a fireman in Melbourne (1901) and a railway yard foreman in Auckland New Zealand. Once familiar with his new environment, he began exporting Australian birds to Europe.

By 1904, Ellis Joseph appears to have based himself in the Western Australian Goldfields Region. In December 1904, he was in Boulder near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia selling caged birds, when one cage containing two 'Californian parakeets' was stolen from him. In September 1906, 'Ellis Josephs' was operating 'a newly-opened bird shop' in Maritana Street Kalgoorlie, was charged with 'cruelly treating a large number of birds by over-crowding them into cages', and fined £1 with 2s costs. In his defence, he stated that the birds had been shipped from Durban in the same cages, and had been inspected upon arrival in port by the 'Chief Stock Inspector and the manager of the Zoological Gardens'.

It is likely that, while in Western Australia, Ellis Joseph made the acquaintance of Ernest Albert Le Souef (first director of the Perth Zoo from 1898 to 1935).

He then began making larger scale expeditions and trading in larger animals.

Early Expedtions to Capture Wildlife

Ellis Joseph's first venture into the 'big game' animal market was in India, as he stated in a lengthy interview as reported by the Barrier Miner newspaper in April 1910,

"I embarked on the British India liner Mombassa at London for East India, and landed at Bombay. From there I travelled on to Poona, and thence onward to Surat. On arrival at Surat I bought two tigers, and caught two leopards, three spotted deer, and a large number of birds, including vultures. These I took to Europe, and eventually disposed of the lot at Marseilles."

In 1908., his attention turned to Africa, and he stated in the Barrier Miner interview that he had worked there alongside a big game hunter of the time .

"My next journey was to Africa. I landed at Durban, and went to Bulawayo in company with a man named Van Ruyen, who at the present time is the greatest hunter in Africa, next to Sleus, the man who accompanied ex-president Roosevelt on his hunting tour. At Bulawayo we captured four lions, a number of elands, antelopes, water and spring bocks, sable antetopes, crown cranes, secretary birds, and a large number of other species. These were also taken to Europe, and I disposed of the lot to Carl Hagenback [sic], the great Hamburg animal trainer and dealer."

Joseph's companion on this expedition - the hunter reported as 'Van Ruyen' - almost certainly, was Cornelis van Rooyen, big game hunter and first breeder of the Rhodesian Ridgeback (previously known as 'Van Rooyen's lion dog').The hunter reported as 'Sleus' is almost certainly the famous big game hunter Frederick Courteney Selous, who was a friend of Cornelis van Rooyen, and who accomanied Theodore Roosevelt on the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition in 1909.

In April 1908, about 80-miles away from Bulawayo, Joseph was injured on the forearm by a lioness that he had captured during this expedition.

In 1909, Ellis Joseph was in Brisbane exibiting two chimpanzees that had been trained to perform tricks , and when he gave his long interview to the Barrier Miner in April 1910, was at Broken Hill with just one trained chipanzee called 'Casey'. The second chimpanzee 'Baldy' had died in Queensland and its body had been sold by Joseph to a Brisbane museum for use as an exhibit. It seems that, between his expeditions outside Australia, he made a living exhibiting the chimpanzees, while travelling in Australia and, almost certainly, capturing or buying Australian animals and birds for export as he went along.

During the long interview of April 1910 , Ellis Joseph stated that he had - by that time - supplied animals to the Adelaide, Melbourne. Perth, and Sydney Zoos, zoos in Europe and America, and the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa. He also stated that he had made an expedition to Argentina to capture wildlife including Pumas, as well as several expeditions to Africa.

By 1912, he was mounting another expedition to Africa to collect specimens, some of which he sold to the Perth Zoo, and shipping significant numbers of birds and animals. Once the connection with zoos had been made, Joseph had customers ready to take creatures he captured and his reputation as a major dealer in wildlife grew.

Capturing Larger Animals

Joseph was interested mainly in capturing live animals for profit, not in hunting big game or collecting dead specimens for museums. But in trying to capture young animals alive, the deaths of older wild animals and animals used as bait did occur. Captured animals also often died; getting the captured animals to eat was seen by Joseph as a major challenge. In the April 1910 interview, he outlined the problem with larger animals such as chimpanzees, as follows .

"The next thing is to get them to eat after they are placed in captivity. You certainly, do succeed at times, but in most cases the animals sulk or die. The same trouble is experienced with the gorilla, a full size specimen of which has not been possible to rear. Even after years of captivity the gorilla becomes savage, sulks, and dies."

In the April 1910 interview, he described three of the methods he used to capture African animals, as follows .

"The best and most effective method I have found to be is the building of a trap, something like a large room, with a picket partition. This would have a door in the front, which would be self-acting, and close down by means of a spring, being released by the weight and vibration caused by the rustling movement of the beast. In this cage or room would be placed a donkey, which is used as a bait. Lions are fond of donkey flesh, and prefer it to the flesh of horses or bullocks."

"The best time to catch the hippopotamus is on moonlight nights and in the dry season. As is well known, the hippo, is an amphibious animal, and when the moon is clear and bright it comes out of the creeks to graze. The hunter has then to discover the favorite spot or breeding places of the beast, and, having done that, build a barricade there. The next move is to get at a point about a mile away, and erect another barricade, and the hippo is thus enclosed in a kind of pound. The express rifle is next brought into use to shoot the old hippos, and the securing of the young animals is then a comparatively easy matter. The full-grown ones are too ferocious and too weighty to handle, weighing from two to four tons each."

"Where the casava grows is to be found a creeper called by the natives ti-ti. The stem of this creeper is about the thickness of an ordinary penholder with the strength and pliabilty of wire. Of this creeper the chimpanzee takes no notice, and thus an almost natural trap is made for him. The natives plait the stems of the ti-ti and make snares. Having completed the snares, 'boys' are placed a few hundred yards away with nets and lassoos. In due time the 'chimp.' comes along and digs for the [casava] root. lt gets caught in the snare, and begins to make a noise. Action has to be at once taken to secure the animal, otherwise it will either liberate itself or its fellow 'chimps.' will do so. The lassoo, which is a double-ended one, is thrown, the chimpanzee is caught in the centre of it, and eventually it is placed safely in a box waiting for its reception, where it is freed."

In an interview with The Sun (Sydney) in September 1912, he disclosed a fourth method .

"In many cases a favorite watering place of the animals was charged with bromide or cyanide of potassium, which had the effect of stupefying the beasts. Then, of course, they were easy to handle and stored away."

By the standards of today, these methods cause unacceptable suffering, too high an environmental impact, and an excessive death rate.

Association with Le Souef Family & Zoos

Joseph formed an association with two influential Australian zoo directors, the brothers Ernest Albert Le Souef (first director of the Perth Zoo from 1898 to 1935) and Albert Sherbourne Le Souef (first director of Taronga Park Zoo, from 1916 to 1939) and a third Le Soeuf brother, the ornothologist Dudley Le Souef, who lived in Melbourne. Their father was Albert Alexander Cochrane Le Souef, who until his death in 1902 was - like his sons - a zoologist and was involved in the establishment of the Melbourne Zoo.

The association with the influential and respected Le Souef family, with their strong connections to leading Australian and overseas zoos, provided a business opportunity for Joseph, at a time when those zoos were expanding their collections.

Some saw Ellis Joseph's association with the Le Souef family and the Australian zoos as both unduly advantaging Ellis Joseph over other exporters of Australian wildlife and allowing the zoos themselves to profit, from a large-scale export of Australian animals and birds, against the intent of statutes governing such exports.

Leading the demands for greater transparency were the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) and the Wild Life Preservation Society. In 1922, as a result of their efforts, it became known publically that Ellis Joseph had earlier entered into an exclusive arrangement for a period of five-years, under which he was to receive a half-share of profits from sales (net of transport and other costs) but was guaranteed a minimum of £1000 per annum.

Deliveries to Australian Zoos

The scale of Ellis Joseph's operations is apparent from the large shipments he made to Australia during the period from 1912 to 1921. Some of the animals were sold to Australian zoos and some would be kept at Joseph's estate "Highfield Hall" unless sold.

1912 Shipment

Ellis Joseph arrived in Perth on 22 June 1912 with a collection of animals mainly from West Africa. He had failed to obtain rhinocerous for the Perth Zoo. He described what he had found as follows :

This trip I captured 73 monkeys of various kinds, 16 deer, chimpanzees, eagles, ostriches, a mermaid, a servalina, two bush pigs, 964 grey parrots, and those other things I mentioned previously. But here is the pride of the lot, a king penguin, from Kerguelen, on the way to the South Pole.

What was reported as a 'mermaid' was an African Manatee that later died while being transported to England.

Several of the animals in this 1912 shipment were purchased by Perth Zoo.

1914 Shipments

In March 1914, Ellis Joseph brought a cargo of animals to Sydney on the RMS Niagara from Vancouver, Canada. The shipment was reported as follows:

"Bulking largest are two magnificent bull bison, captured in Montana; and next in size are two elk, the latter pair and some of the other animals being for the Sydney Zoological Gardens."

"The other inhabitants of this floating menagerie ...... are 14 bears black, brown, and cinnamon - several deer,eight peccary (Mexican wild boar), flve coyotes (prairie wolves), three beavers, several minx, a number of squirrels, racoons, porcupines, lynx, four badgers, and a leopard cat. Among the birds are four American baldheaded eagles, Canadian "honker" goose, blue jays, snow birds, and variegated thrushes. There are also a number of snakes. The whole collection is native of either the States or Canada, and took over four months to got together. They are destined for various Zoological Gardens."

In late December 1914, Ellis Joseph had another cargo of animals on board ss Nordic en-route from Durban to the eastern states of Australia. There was a rhinoceros on board and Ellis stated that this was only the fourth one to be captured alive, There were also two African elephants and many other animals on board. The inventory was described as follows.

"a brown hyena, two lions, four leopards, two zebras, two South American llamas, Moufflons, Barbary sheep, blesbok, springbok, ducker bok, impalla, and sable antelopes, jackals, lemurs, two South African elephants, a Livingstone eland, Patagonian hares, a rhinoceros, 40 apes and baboons of different kinds, an Aldebarra tortoise from the Seychelles Islands, pythons and birds of all descriptions."

In August 1915, Ellis Joseph assisted a fundraising day in Sydney by providing the use of one of the African elephants, a four to five year old 'baby' elepahant called 'African Daisy'. Joseph said that he had captured the elephant in Southern Rhodesia in October 1914 and had trained it for a fortnight for the fundraising activity. During the fundraising, the baby elephant was riden by a little girl.

1916 Shipment

In 1916, Eliis Joseph brought three young polar bears - one male and two female - from New York for the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney. The cost was £450. By 1919, the zoo was planning to attempt to breed bear cubs from these bears.

The content of the shipment was reported as follows.

"The most interesting animal of the consignment is a monster grizzly bear, which was captured after a hard fight in his Rocky Mountain home. This animal is destined for the new bear pit at Taronga Park. The other animals include three polar bears, two grizzly bears, a todiac [sic] bear, two Mongolian wild horses, monkeys, beavers, racoons, 14 elks, and black and cinnamon bears. There are also a number of parrots, buzzards, Virginian wild turkeys; white cross pigeons, alligators, and various varieties of snakes."

One of the snakes was a boa-constrictor. Two elks and a bison died during the voyage.

Ellis Joseph hoped to dispose of the wildlife to the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney and to the Adelaide Zoo.

1921 Shipment

In 1921, Ellis Joseph was a passenger on the first part of the last voyage of the SS Canastota. After the ship left New York and passed through the Panama Canal, it called first at Suva, Fiji, where numerous birds, animals and reptiles were transferred to the A.U.S.N. Co. steamer Levuka (bound for Sydney), along with Mr Joseph. The transfer between ships was made so as to reduce the time it would take to deliver the live cargo to Sydney.

The wildlife in the shipment were as follows.

"8 bears (polar and grizzly), 3 buffaloes, 14 racoons, 2 wolves, 8 foxes, 50 monkeys,. 2 mountain lions, 5 skunks, 100 snakes, 100 parrots, 100 finches, 2 llamas, 20 white swans, 7 possums, 40 alligators, 21 tortoises,.2 gilla monsters, 1 woolley monkey".

A hyena and a llama died during the voyage.

On 18 April 1921, Mr. Joseph and his menagerie reached Sydney safely. The cargo of creatures was divided between Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney and Melbourne Zoo.

Deliveries to American Zoos

1920 Shipment

Using his large estate "Highfield Hall" to accommodate the creatures, Joseph accummulated a consignment of over 4,000 Australian birds, animals and reptiles for the New York Zoo. This live cargo was shipped from Sydney on the steamer Bellbuckle, which arrived in New York on 29 October 1920. Mr. Joseph accompanied his live cargo as a passenger. (Prior to leaving Sydney, in August 1920, he sold his trained chipanzee 'Casey' to the Taronga Park Zoo.)

Some of the creatures were sent to the U.S.A. under an agreement between American zoos and Australian zoos, to cooperate by providing specimens endemic to each country, and some belonged to Mr. Joseph himself. The exact role of Ellis Joseph was controversial; he appeared to be both a wildlife dealer and simultaneously acting as an 'agent' for the Australian zoos .

While in New York, Mr. Joseph assembled a shipment of creatures destined for Australian zoos. He left New York, together with his new live cargo, aboard the ss Canastota on 6 March 1921.

Platypus (1922)

Henry Burrell with his 'portable platypusary'.

With the assistance of the Australian naturalist and expert on monotremes, Henry Burrell, Ellis Joseph took the first live platypus to be seen outside Australia to the United States in 1922.

Five platypuses were shipped from Sydney on 12 May 1922 to San Francisco, from where they were sent by train to New York , at all times accompanied by Mr. Joseph.

The animals were transported in an enclosure designed by Burrell - with some input from Joseph - that was known as a 'portable platypusary'. It consisted of five compartments leading from the water to the sand, and in each of the internal walls there was a narrow, rubber-lined doorway. Joseph explained the secret of the operation of the 'portable platypusary', in an interview:

It's quite simple. When the platypus wants to change from water to sand, he has to crawl through those rubber-Iined doors. This gradually drains the moisture from its fur, and by the time it reaches the sand it is dry. It seems a curious notion, but it's the whole secret. Before I put those doors in the platypus used always to get pneumonia through never being able to get properly dry whilst In the tank.

Despite the special enclosure and the great care taken, after the long journey of over fifty days, only one platypus was alive and it survived at the zoo for only seven weeks.

Thylacine or 'Tasmanian Tiger' (1916 & 1917)

Joseph played a small part in hastening the extinction of the Thylacine or 'Tasmanian Tiger', by providing two of the animals to the Bronx Zoo, in New York in 1916 and 1917.. The first animal died after only seven days at the zoo, while the second lived until September 1919.

Koala or 'Koala Bear'

Speaking in April 1921, about Ellis Joseph, the master of the ss Canastota (Captain Andrew J. Lockie) said in a newspaper interview.:

I remember one cute little bear he sent to New York. That poor little bear was landed there, but there were no gum leaves, for him to eat. None could be found in the city, and efforts were made to get some, but the dear little thing would not eat anything else, and he fretted and died after a week.

1923 Shipments (Camels, Birds and Kangaroos)

In July 1923, Ellis Joseph made a large shipment to the United States using two separate ships.

He bought 55 camels, from a camel depot of the government of South Australia and shipped these to America on the steamer Eastern. The camels were destined for American zoos. Camels are not native to Australia but were imported as a means of transport in arid areas. By the time of the shipment, such camels were being replaced by motorised transport. Camels still exist in Australia, in large numbers, as feral animals.

He also sent a shipment of birds and 150 kangaroos to New York on the steamer Medic.

Opposition to Wildlife Exports & End of Australian Operations

In 1923, although still exporting Australian animals in that year, Ellis Joseph was not allowed to reattempt the export of live platypuses to the United States.

Public opinion was changing in favour of animal welfare, and it is likely that Joseph's reputation had suffered significant damage due to the revelations about his contractual arrangements in 1922..

It seems that Ellis Joseph's large-scale wildlife import and export operations - in Australia at least - had ceased by 1924.

In 1926, he sold his estate "Highfield Hall" and returned to the United States.