Rio (Ryo) an Asian elephant at Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus

☨ Rio (Ryo)
ID nr:
Species: Asian elephant
Sex and age:Male ♂
Dead date: † 1928-06-20
Death reason: euthanised: executed in New Haven Conn. after stampade
Location:Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus
ArrivalRingling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus 1919-00-00
from Ringling Brothers Circus
Ringling Brothers Circus 1911-00-00
from Forepaugh-Sells Show
Forepaugh-Sells Show 1910-00-00
from Firma Carl Hagenbeck
Born:* wild
Document updated2009-01-14: Text
2012-09-30:�alt name
2012-10-31: 
"In 1917 the Barnum Show carried 18 Asian elephants, four of which were males. Two tuskers "Pilate" and "Mighty" and two that had no ivory at all "Albert" and "Coco".
To the uninformed, P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey were long since dead by this time and the show was owned by the Ringling Brothers. Two years later both shows and titles were merged and the 1919 show carried 36 elephants adding three more tuskless males "Sammy", "Rio" and "John". This phenomenon is not all that unusual but I have read that tuskless males in the jungle will instinctly become more ferocious in order to compete with tuskers.
My dad was on the show in 1920 taking care of two camels named "Victor" and "Rosie" and added that the only tusker at that time was "Mighty" and he had knobs on the end of his tusks but for some reason they were flat like door knobs. He also mentioned that when the elephant men mounted up to ride to the train the Ringling elephants raised them up with their trunks and the Barnum elephants used their left front foot. Buckles"
Barnum & Bailey/ Mooney's Musical Elephants, Buckles Web Log, 07/21/05

"Here are a few more elephants in this advertising post card for you to identify if you believe their advertising! You spoke of the lease for the two years 4-paw-Sells was off the road and Bill Cooker dated the photo 1913, after 3-Paw-Sells had returned to the road for 1910-11. Can you tell us about the Gollmar herd in those years? How long did Ringling continue to lease elephants to their cousins? Nice to have Bill contributing to the blog. Dick Flint Baltimore
"The elephant herd on 4-Paw & Sells for the final two seasons (1910-11) consisted of 14 elephants and George Denman, brought over from Barnum & Bailey, was placed in charge." Buckles
Ring 1- Presented by Oscar Vought
1. Babe 2. Rubber 3. Vanita 4. Betts 5. Alice
Ring 2- Presented by George Denman
1. Jennie 2. Rio (male) 3. Nellie
These three young elephants were imported from Hagenbeck to much acclaim. One newspaper review stated that three Great Dane Dogs were included in the act.
Ring 3- Presented by Richard Smith
1. Queen 2. Fanchon 3. Lena 4. Romeo 5. Columbia
A 14th elephant named "Lou" did not perform."
Gollmar Ele Post Card (From Richard Flint), Buckles Web Log, 11/11/08

Records about Rio (Ryo) from William "Buckles" Woodcocks Blog at http://www.bucklesw.blogspot.com/
"In 1910 the Ringlings revived the Forepaugh-Sells Circus and purchased an act from Hagenbeck in Germany that consisted of three young elephants "Nellie", "Jennie" and "Rio" included in the act were several Great Dane dogs."

From Buckles Woodcocks blog:



Reference list

Koehl, D., (2020). Rio (Ryo), an Asian at Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 28 October 2020 at https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=2365. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Internal relevant links

External relevant links (Opens in new window)

    Literature

Search more on the web for Rio (Ryo)

Elephant Encyclopedia and database
ELEPHANT
ENCYCLOPEDIA
Established 1995
ELEPHANT
DATABASE
Established 2006
Search for keywords

Locations of visitors to elephant.se
3.89.87.12