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A comment on Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book.

Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by iafisher on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:50AM (#17400998)
This story reminds me of Abul-Abbas [1], an elephant given to Charlemagne by the caliph of the Abbasids. Frederick II wasn't the first Holy Roman Emperor to collect exotic animals, it seems.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul-Abbas

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Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by _Codemonkeyism on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @12:43PM (#17402109)
The Romans had war elephants [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_war_elephants

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Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by baldfat on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @12:57PM (#17402228)
Hannibal? He fought the Romans in Spain and then took the elephants over the Italian Alps and attacks Rome from the North. That is the greatest military feat for me.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/03/where-muck-h...

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Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by _Codemonkeyism on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @01:01PM (#17402253)
Yes the Romans had elephant idea probably from Hannibal, the article references the Punic wars.
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Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by adrianratnapala on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @08:34PM (#17404997)
Yes, but the Holy Roman Empire is a different kettle of fish.
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Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by smadge on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @07:04PM (#17404654)
Not as surprising since the Elephants came from just a few hundred miles away accross the Mediterranean Sea.
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Re:Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book by adrianratnapala on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @08:43PM (#17405036)
The Romans used both north African elephants (now extinct) and Asian elephants which they got by long-distance trade.

Apparently the Asian elephants were larger; and besides I suppose India and Sri Lanka also had better infrastructure for catching and training war elephants than the Roman Empire did.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_elephant

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