The elephant’s name is probably from slang jumbo meaning “clumsy, unwieldy fellow” (recorded usage in 1823), which in itself is likely derived from the word for elephant in a West African ...

His jumbo Jumbo collection includes an 1881 letter from P.T. Barnum to the London Zoological Society offering to buy their huge elephant for his circus and transport it to New York.

An ailing 47-year-old Asian elephant named Lucy is now breathing solely from her mouth, a recent medical assessment has found, and will remain at the Edmonton Valley Zoo.

Jumbo, a made up word combining the Swahili words for hello (“Jambo”) and chief (“Jambe”), was the circus elephant that was killed while being walked along train tracks not far from where ...