Indian elephants

The Indian elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) are a group of animals in the Jungle Cruise.

Description[]

These are Indian elephants who inhabited the Asian regions of Adventureland. They met within a sacred bathing pool in Cambodia located between a flooded Mekong river temple built by the Khmer empire. While located in Cambodia, this pool also connected to the Ganges River of India and Irrawaddy River of Burma due to the mystical Rivers of Adventure.

Members[]

Bertha: The name of the baby-elephant under the waterfall.
Ellie: Ellie was a baby elephant adopted by the ancient mystic merchant Trader Sam.
Squirt: This was a large Indian elephant who often sprayed skippers in water.

History[]

Background[]

Indian Elephant Bathing Pool[]

Indian elephants have been a present population in Adventureland since ancient times with buddhists creating statues in their territory. Amongst these was a shrine of buddhist elephant-god Genesha built outside a Cambodian temple with the likeness of Mahaparamasaugata (c.1150–1160).

The waters that would become the bathing-pool were originally uninhabited, leading to them having been visited by the ancient magic-user Trader Sam prior to or during the golden age of piracy.^[1] After making his first liquor concoction, Sam accidentally spilled a barrel of the booze into the waters. Upon arriving the next day, Sam found that the liquor had attracted a large number of elephants who drank its booze.^[2]

The waters remained a hot-spot for Indian elephants for years to come as the animals never forgot the spot. On the June 5 of 1888, Dr. Albert Falls, "Discovered" the ancient Cambodian shrine which the pool was hidden behind. Around 1891, Falls returned to the region and found the bathing-pool while on the fourth day of a 13-day expedition through the mystical, "Rivers of Adventure". Falls documented the waterbody as, "The Elephant Bathing Pool" and a safe harbour with calm waters.

Jungle Navigation Company[]

Following 1911, Falls' business the Jungle Navigation Company often passed through the region. At some point following 1916, company boatsman Frank Wolff travelled through the Cambodian shrine and into the bathing-pool while documenting new routes along the Rivers of Adventure. In 1931, the JNC was run by one Alberta Falls who started the, "Jungle Cruise" tourism service that travelled through the pool.

In a December between 1935 and 1937, the temple and the temple's region were polluted along with the rest of the Rivers of Adventure by the Jungle Navigation Company. The company had imported a large amount of Christmas decor and paraphernalia which their pilot by accident dumped in the Rivers of Adventure resulting in mass pollution. This crime was reported on by Tallahassee Glover of The Daily Gnus newspaper with other related incidents including a skipper seemingly having been killed by a tiger within the temple. Due to the success of leading Christmas oriented, "Jingle Cruise" tours through the jungle, this act of pollution became an annual standard for the Jungle Navigation Company.

By 1938, the pool was somewhat secretive due to it being accessed by the treacherous Shir Lee Temple which skippers of the JNC were forbidden from entering in the 1930s when a boat called the Zambezi Zelda disappeared within. However, many skippers around 1936-1938 ignored these restrictions and passed through the temple anyways. Due to this, the secret pool was frequently visited by tourists of the Jungle Cruise and its skippers.

Development history[]

The Indian elephant Bathing Pool was a scene designed by Disney legend Marc Davis. This was for a comedy-oriented refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise. The scene repurposed an audio-animatronic wooly mammoth designed by Davis for the 1964 World's Fair attraction Ford's Magic Skyway.^[3]

Appearances[]

A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas[]

Carvings of the elephants decorated the totem for the Treasure of the Pacific.

Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye[]

Eye on the Globe's newsreel shows tourists travelling to the Lost Delta on elephant-back. There is a sticker in the queue with an Indian elephant on it and the word, "Express", seemingly referencing them being used for transportation.

Jungle Cruise[]

The bathing pool is passed through in this attraction. Ellie appears outside of Trader Sam's Gift Shop! and used to appear alongside Sam himself.

Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions[]

In addition to appearing in this ecologically themed attraction, a photo of the pool is in a cabinet of the queue labelled, "Friends of the Jungle".^[4] Ellie accompanies Sam's cousin Chief Nah-mee selling pendants. The elephants also appear on the likeness for the Elephant of Wisdom pendent.

Jungle River Cruise[]

Ellie appears on her own at the end of this attraction.

Skipper Canteen[]

In the Skipper Canteen's library is a book titled, "Bathing with Elephants" by Bertha Trunkstein.^[5] Additionally, there is an illustration of one of the bathing elephants in the menus.

Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar[]

There is a photograph of the pool in this bar. Along with it is a note from Trader Sam which reads, "I spilled a barrel of my first drink recipe into this once vacant spot in the river and the next day a whole bunch of elephants showed up".

World of Disney[]

This shop in Disney Springs is themed to being an old animation studio within the town of Disney Springs, Florida. On a table implied to have belonged to Davis is concept art of the elephant pool.^[6]

Trivia[]

It is possible the elephants have some connection to the Elephant Safari Company. In real-life, elephant-back riding is considered a form of animal-abuse due to the elephant's spine not being able to withstand the weight and being ridden without causing damage.
An unused gag made for the Jungle Cruise by Marc Davis would have featured a white colonial hunter on elephant-back, attempting to kill a tiger.