Jumbo was an African elephant who belonged to P. T. Barnum's travelling circus.
Biography
On 15 September 1885, the circus was performing in St Thomas in Ontario, Canada. Jumbo and the other elephants were waiting in their carriages when the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith arrived in the TARDIS. One of the workers, Benjamin Jackson, accidentally transported the TARDIS in between the carriages, which Jumbo noticed after he was led out of the carriage to the performance
In the absence of anyone to flag oncoming steam engines about activity ahead, one of them came through the area at high speed as the elephants were crossing the railway on the way back to their carriages. Jumbo and Tom Thumb were trapped on the tracks by the circus' own carriages, and the TARDIS closing up a potential gap. Tom Thumb was hit before the Doctor moved the TARDIS out of the way to reopen the gap. Jumbo noticed too late and was killed as the train collided with him as he tried to turn back.
A number of coins, keys and a whistle were found inside Jumbo when his body was examined. He was stuffed for display in Barnum's Museum of Natural History while his skeleton was put on display elsewhere. People used to pull his tail for good luck, until one day it came off and was taken away for preservation. It was one of the few remains of the elephant left after Jumbo's exhibit was destroyed.
The word "jumbo" became strongly associated with elephants, and it was after Jumbo that the jumbo jet was named. (AUDIO: The Wondrous Box)