Elephant Empire beyond the Colonial Frontier

Animal trade constitutes one of the key factors of animal mobility beyond their natural habitats. Exotic specimens found their way to menageries and zoos following the routes of colonial conquest and possession of land and natural resources. Whereas zoological gardens and animal collections in North America and Western Europe are well researched, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the history and legacy of these modernizing institutions in Eastern Europe. In this presentation, I investigate the traffic in exotic animals to this region with a focus on a particular species. Historically, elephants have been considered prime symbols of power and triumph of the colonial empire, and thus were often the jewels of colonial animal collections across Europe (Ritvo 1987). I explore how the colonial origin of elephants as both big game (being hunted for ivory, taxidermy, meat) and charismatic megafauna (spectacular mammals on display) translates into a geopolitical context without direct overseas colonies, in order to trace the material links between species, race, transnational commodity networks, and structures of identity formation. From this vantage point I suggest that studying public zoos in Eastern Europe offers a unique insight into a physical presence of colonial imperialism (via traffic in exotic species) in an area without overseas colonies, through a site where modernist models of citizenship, nationhood, and Europeanness are forged at the interface between science, education, and transnational politics.