Early years At the age of 13, 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. Once familiar with his new environment, he began exporting Australian birds to Europe. 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 2
s 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'. Soon afterwards Ellis Joseph decided to leave Western Australia. In an advertisement for his Kalgoorlie bird shop on 14 September 1906, he announced that "I am leaving for the Eastern States" (of Australia). Hundreds of birds and other items were sold at auction in Perth on 25 September 1906 in preparation for his move. It is likely that, while in
Western Australia, Ellis Joseph had 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 expeditions to capture wildlife and trained animal exhibits 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, but when he gave his long interview to
the Barrier Miner in April 1910, was at
Broken Hill with just one called 'Casey'. of
pneumonia, and its body had been sold by Joseph to a Brisbane museum for use as an exhibit. A third chimp, 'Joseph' (or 'Joe'), had died in Melbourne, of
marasmus—suggesting loss of appetite and a miserable end—before 'Baldy' had died, and his body had been turned into an exhibit at the museum in Melbourne. and
Charters Towers, before heading to
Townsville and
Cairns, keeping to the warmer parts of Queensland, during the winter of that year, and later that month in Adelaide. In August of the same year, Casey performed in Kalgoorlie, and in November in
Hobart. 'Casey' had been trained in various human-like behaviours and, as well as performing acrobatic displays, would shake hands with onlookers, drink milk from a glass, use a pencil to scrawl an
autograph on paper, wind a watch, smoke a cigarette or pipe, play music including on the mouth organ, sweep with a broom, and "nurse any babies handed to him with wonderful care". The range of trained behaviours demonstrated Joseph's considerable skill and achievement as an animal trainer, and hints at a level of attachment between 'Casey' and his owner. However, Joseph was not above putting a monetary value upon 'Casey'; He apparently did sell 'Casey' to Thomas Fox. ('Casey' escaped in December 1914 and was shot in the foot by police in
Marrickville, Sydney, after allegedly frightening a woman to death. Fox lost an eye in the same incident and, after being fined £2 and paying £300 in compensation to the dead woman's estate, he took 'Casey' to the U.S.A. Casey died at
Tampa, Florida in January 1917.) During the long interview of April 1910, some of which he sold to the
Perth Zoo upon his return in 1912, and was shipping significant numbers of birds and animals. The outbreak of World War I and Germany's subsequent loss of her
overseas colonies, together with the untimely death of
Carl Hagenbeck in 1913, created an opportunity for Joseph, as Germany's hitherto dominant position in the trading of animals for zoos became vacant.
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. 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 Perth Zoo Leading the demands for greater transparency were the
Daily Telegraph and the
Wild Life Preservation Society. Around this time, Ellis Joseph had a falling out with the Le Soueth brothers, losing access to their influence.
1912 shipment By November 1911, Eliis Joseph was in West Africa. He advised from
Sierra Leone that he was going to leave
'Koko Beach' in the south of Nigeria in search of more animals, having already captured some at that time. Ellis Joseph was selling grey parrots from the 1912 shipment to the public, advertising in Perth and Kalgoorlie. In 1913, he was exporting birds to
Vancouver.
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), five
coyotes (prairie wolves), three
beavers, several
minx, a number of
squirrels,
raccoons,
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 get together. They are destined for various Zoological Gardens." In March 1914, Joseph sold one of the bull bison and some of the other animals to the
Adelaide Zoo. The bison had been in a crate, in which it could not turn, for four months and so had marks on its skin. 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." Some of these animals were destined for the Melbourne Zoo. 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' elephant 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 ridden by a little girl. It was reported that the zoos in Australia could not pay him enough for this 'baby' elephant, and that Joseph sent it to Honolulu.
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 Kodiak bear|todiac [sic] bear, two
Mongolian wild horses, monkeys,
beavers,
raccoons, 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. The transfer between ships was made so as to reduce the time it would take to deliver the live cargo to Sydney, as
Canastota was to call at several ports prior to arriving in Sydney. The wildlife in the shipment were as follows. On
Anzac Day (25 April) 1921, he was reunited - in front of a hundred or so onlookers - with his former pet chipmazee 'Casey', whom he had sold to the
Taronga Park Zoo before leaving for America in 1920. (This chimpanzee was the second 'Casey', not the one with whom he had travelled Australia in 1909-1910.) In Casey's excitement to see him again—or so it was reported at the time—'Casey' embraced Joseph but, in doing so, delivered a bite to Joseph's jaw that resulted in a large wound to his cheek and another below his chin. Joseph, who had one arm in a sling at the time, was rescued by a zoo keeper and sent to hospital for treatment. The second 'Casey' lived at the zoo, until his death in January 1936.
Deliveries to American zoos 1916 & 1917 shipments (thylacine or 'Tasmanian tiger', elephant & 'Hawaiian wallabies') 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 last known
thylacine died at the
Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart in 1936. In 1916, Joseph delivered a young
African elephant to
Honolulu's Kapiolani Park Zoo. Named 'Miss Daisy'—almost certainly the same elephant as 'African Daisy' who was used for fundraising in Sydney in 1915
1920 shipment Using his estate 'Highfield Hall' to accommodate the creatures, Joseph accumulated 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 pet chimpanzee—the second one that he owned called 'Casey'—to the Taronga Park Zoo. This was unusual for Ellis Joseph, who was interested in all animals but did "not deal in fishes, except on his breakfast plate". Some of the creatures were sent to the US 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. at all times accompanied by Mr. Joseph. Ellis Joseph had been assisted by his local member of the
NSW Parliament, Mr A.K. Bowden, MLA, to obtain an export permit for the platypuses. Joseph explained the secret of the 'portable platypusary', in an interview: The export of a live platypus was the pinnacle of Joseph's career and he was proud to have achieved it. It remained the event for which he was most renowned, for several decades.
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. (or
Easterner). 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.
Feral camels still exist in Australia, in large numbers. Ellis Joseph also sent a shipment of birds and 150 kangaroos to New York on the steamer
Medic. He had been advertising to purchase live kangaroos in June 1923.
1924 shipment In September 1924, Ellis Joseph imported several elephants on board the SS
American Trader, which were unloaded at
Hoboken.
End of Australian operations Opposition to wildlife exports and regulatory changes 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. Influencing that decision was that three platypuses destined for export had died while in captivity in Australia. After having spent much time and effort since 1916 pursuing this aim, it must have been a great disappointment. Public and expert opinion was changing in favour of animal welfare and conservation of wildlife in its natural environment, and it is likely that Joseph's reputation had suffered some damage due to the revelations about his contractual arrangements in 1922. Changing attitudes and a growing conservation movement led to increased regulation of the wildlife trade in Australia. In 1923, almost at the same time as Joseph's 1923 shipment to the United States, a prohibition was placed by the Minister of Customs on the export certain species from Australia. From that time on, export of such wildlife would be guided by recommendations to the Collector of Customs by an advisory committee in each state of Australia but no export permit would be granted for 'purely commercial reasons'. For a commercial dealer in rare and exotic animals such as Joseph, the consequences of the new Australian regulatory arrangements were enormous; it effectively would end his ability to export many Australian animals and birds. Joseph's 1923 shipment included only wildlife that he claimed had been captured prior to the prohibition, that he claimed he had purchased from 'public gardens'—presumably zoos—or from private owners. and raise
poultry. The estate probably was at least partially self-sufficient in providing food for the animals and birds Ellis Joseph kept there. In October 1925, an auction was held at 'Highfield Hall' for 'building materials' including a large quantity of hardwood timber, a 60-foot long shed, 170 bird cages, incubators, a brooder and a
tip-dray with horse and harness, on the "instructions from Mrs. Moore, who is acting for Mr. Joseph". Mrs Moore was Hannah Moore, who like her husband Arthur Moore was an animal keeper. The pair had looked after the estate during Ellis Joseph's absence. Ellis Joseph's house and estate, its luxurious furnishings, his possessions—including a "Magnificent collection of valuable Skins"—and his motor car—a 1920
Buick— were put to a second auction on 5 December 1925, "under instructions from and for and on account of Mrs. H.J. Moore, in consequence of her early departure for abroad." The inventory of the auction, which was advertised as "The sale of the season", indicates that Ellis Joseph was by that time a very wealthy man. By 1926, 'Highfield Hall' had been sold for
£6,500, and who belonged to the same Mr Thomas Fox of Marrickville who had bought the first 'Casey', toured Australia into the early 1930s. By 1931, Ellis Joseph's Australian home "Highfield Hall" had become a boarding school. The land later was subdivided. Ellis Joseph was still well known in the 1930s, being remembered mainly as the man who had exported the first live platypus. After that, he faded from memory.
Later years in the USA After his return to the US, Ellis Joseph lived in New York from 1923 and, from 1927 until his death, in the Bronx, New York, in a neighbourhood not far from the Bronx Zoo.
Museum gifts The president of the
American Museum of Natural History noted in his annual report for 1926, that Ellis Joseph had supplied (dead) specimens to the museum. "The
New York Zoological Society and Mr. Ellis S. Joseph continued to supply the Department with important specimens for preservation in its study collections, which have been well used by specialists from the
Yale,
Johns Hopkins, and
Columbia departments of
anatomy and
neuro-anatomy." The same annual report included Ellis Stanley Joseph in the list of life members of the museum, and stated that he had provided, "by Gift", the following specimens: and 1930. == Retirement and death ==