Captives From Canada’s “Unspoiled Province;” Extracting Wild Animals For Sportsmen’s Shows, 1898-1941

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Abstract

In February of 1931, a noisy and eclectic menagerie of wild animals was temporarily housed in New Brunswick’s chilly Parliament basement, snarling and pacing in cages under the legislative chamber. Among crates of owls, beavers, and a perturbed wildcat, two moose placidly waited for their long journey south to the Boston Sportsmen's Show. “Buster” the bull moose and “Jane” the cow moose became the next captive generation of New Brunswick’s ‘flagship species,’ enticing American hunters northward to Canada's ‘Unspoiled Province.’ While the term ‘flagship species’ has been popular with conservationist campaigns against wildlife extinction since the 1980s, few scholars have applied the dynamic to examine historic tourism schemes of extraction, display, and displacement, encouraging hunting of the ‘flagship’ creature. Moose appeared frequently and prominently in the province’s tourism literature for decades, though living examples were substantially more inspirational for advertising ‘trophy travel.’ In the name of promoting seasonal tourism, unwilling moose ambassadors were extracted from their habitat, transported thousands of miles by railcar, and if they survived the Sportsmen’s Show, were often presented to U.S. zoos to live out their days in public view. Moose have historically been difficult to keep healthy in captivity, demonstrating the extraordinary commitment of New Brunswick officials to a difficult logistical challenge, but a generally cavalier attitude toward the animals as disposable ‘props’ serving a larger and profitable purpose. As animate propaganda, temperamental and delicate moose were critical for New Brunswick officials to attract attention in what Neil Leiper termed, “tourism generating regions,” and manufacture an image of New Brunswick as a “tourism destination region.” By examining tourism ephemera and governmental records, individual stories of animal displacement can be elevated from obscurity, enhancing our understanding of the ethical and financial costs of doing business in early 20th century trophy tourism.

Author

• Sean Cox, University of New Brunswick