Great Animals in History

In honor of my sweet labrador's birthweek, (yes, birthweek...Banjo was a stray and the vet was only able to pinpoint his birth to the first week of October. Coincidently, Banjo was born approximately days after my childhood dog, Cookie, passed away. Yes, we are a match made in heaven.) I bring you a list of some of the most famous and influential animals in history. As always, this list appears in no particular order and for more information, simply click on the animal's name.

Great Animals in History

Ham the Chimpanzee: Ham was the first primate in space, thus making this little chimp more awesome than about 99.9% of all my human readers.

Smokey "Hotfoot Teddy" the Bear: We all know Smokey, he keeps us informed on the risk of forest fires and provides us with the inspirational message of "Only YOU can prevent Forest Fires." This little guy's existance also helped "Bambi" become a little less traumatizing since the orphaned deer no longer had to be a spokesman for anti-forest fires too:

Yeah, try sleeping now.

Jumbo the Elephant: Imagine it's the 1880s, there is no such thing as Internet, television, photogrpahs are pretty darn hard to come by...for a good time, you and your friends decide that kooky fellow P.T. Barnum's show could be fun. There you see an elephant for the first time. A thirteen foot high, six ton elephant named Jumbo. Famous for his docile behavior, "The Children's Friend," Jumbo, essentially put in the first really good word for elephants. On top of that, Jumbo wasn't named for his size, all things advertized as "Jumbo" today? They're named for him.

Balto the Sled Dog: To be fair to the other members of dog sled teams (key word there), a bunch of dogs deserve credit for bringing serum to Nome, Alaska during the 1925 Diptheria Epidemic. If you were a child (or parent of a child) of the 1990's, you probably remember the cartoon about Balto (who was a bit more awesome and pitiful than the real dog).

Dolly the Sheep: Dolly didn't really do anything, but be created in an unnatural way. However, how many of you can say not only are you a clone, but you're named after possibly the most famous breasts in history? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Knut the Polar Bear: Knut, who, like many stars, could have been famous on that cute mug alone, became the center of controversy when his mother neglected him and keepers opted to raise him instead of letting him die as he most likely would have in the wild. I apologize for the less-then-educational link, but, like a true celebrity born in the spotlight, Knut died young and most searches result in that information only.

Comanche the Horse: Pop Quiz! What is the Battle of Little Big Horn aka "Custer's Last Stand" famous for? If you know diddly about history, you probably said, "no survivors." The correct answer is "no HUMAN survivors."

Koko the Gorilla: There are some lucky people who are bilingual, even luckier ones can speak more than two languages, thus allowing them to communicate to people of different cultures. Koko puts them to shame by communicating to a different species.

Cher Ami the Pigeon: The next time you are walking around a city and thinking about how much you hate those annoying pigeons, ask yourself when was the last time you saved 200 soldiers?

"Daisy" or "Madeline" or maybe "Gwendolyn" the Cow: let's polish this list off with an infamous animal in history. Legend has it Mrs. Kate O'Leary's cow (of any of those possible names) kicked over a lantern and started The Great Chicago Fire. I would like to point out that it seems to me, Mrs. O'Leary is kinda passing the blame here...maybe the cow did kick the lantern over, but didn't Mrs. O'Leary put the lantern in kicking range?

What are some other great animals in history? I was striving to find actual history-making critters, not just stars of late night television or famous through association of their famous owner. Bo Obama is pretty darn cute, but until he ruins the carpet in the Lincoln Bedroom, I don't think he'll be making history anytime soon. Besides Teddy Roosevelt had lion cubs...nothing else is going to compare, once and future presidents.