Josephine
African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) at
Philadelphia Zoo in United States

Biography

☨ ♀ Josephine
Ride elephant Josephine, and keeper Pat Cronin. Philadelphia Zoo May 1, 1938
Museum locations
Present / last location:	Washington National Museum of Natural History, in United States

Date of arrival

1943-03-12	Washington National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, United States

Identification

Museum accession number	NMNH USNM 270993
SSP nr	5

Description
Species:	African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)
Sex and age:	Female ♀
Characteristics:	skull, skeleton, nerve stored in a jar of alcohol
Origin
Born:	* wild
Birth place:	in West Africa unspecified location
Death
Dead:	†1943-03-12
Death reason:	unknown:
Locations - owners
Present / last location:	Philadelphia Zoo, in United States

Date of arrival

1925-04-04	Philadelphia Zoo from Joseph Shirley

Record history
History of updates	2011-04-06: Previous location, SSP RE 2021-07-28: Museum details 2025-03-03: Born in Burkina Faso

Latest document update	2025-03-03 05:02:02

† Josephine is a dead Female ♀ African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), , who died 1943-03-12 at Philadelphia Zoo, in United States, .

Museum locationThe Museum specimen remains of this animal is within the collection at Washington National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC, United States, since 1943-03-12.

Origin

Josephine was born wild at West Africa unspecified location.

Comments / pictures

Josephine, forest elephant, giving rides at the Philadelphia Zoo on May 1, 1938. She was 16 years old at the time and measured 6' 11" tall (7' 8" at death, apprx. 21 yrs). Rides were offered daily 1pm-5pm weather permitting, supervised by keeper Pat Cronin. It was estimated 175,000 people had rode on her back during the seven years she gave rides.
With prices adjusted for inflation, the cost of rides were:
Children- $0.10 (today $2.25)
Adults- $0.25 (today $5.63)
In the spring of 1942, she was retired from the ride after she tried to attack a child.
"In 1935, Josie began to earn her daily hay (and apples and peanuts, as well as an occasional ice cream cone). On her way back to the elephant house, when the day's work was done, she would insist upon stopping at the Zoo's restaurant. Thrusting her head through the doorway, she would feast upon a basket of bread left from the previous day. Sometimes the keeper would pretend to forget this routine, but when he did Josephine would stop dead in her tracks and refuse to move until she had received the handout she regarded as her due."

Andrew Shek

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2026). Josephine, African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) located at Philadelphia Zoo in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 9 March 2026 at https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1459. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Roth, V. Sep 1984 ["Sep 1984"]. How Elephants Grow: Heterochrony and the Calibration of Developmental Stages in Some Living and Fossil Species. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 4 (1)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/3d7e1df39-50f2-4451-b0e0-f562d0d45068
Conant, R., The passing of two (Philadelphia Zoo) favorites (Peggy and Josephine), 1943 ; Journal: Fauna ; Volume: 5 (1). http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/134/1349832070.pdf
Andrew Shek

Litterature about Philadelphia Zoo