Much of what is known of Ellis Joseph's childhood and early adult years comes from three lengthy interviews that he gave to newspapers—the Barrier Miner in April 1910,[1] the Sunday Times (Perth) in July 1912,[2] and the Sun (Sydney) in September 1912.

[1] In adulthood, Ellis Joseph was a physically large man—six feet six inches (1.98 m) tall and 21 stone (294 lb or 134 kg) in weight[11]—who was renowned for his seemingly boundless energy.

[13] By the standards of today, his methods of capturing and handling of living creatures would be seen as causing unacceptable suffering, too high an environmental impact, and an excessive death rate.

While on a holiday trip with his father to Panama, he bought some green parrots at Central American ports and sold these at a profit when he returned to San Francisco.

[1] It seems that it was trading in birds from the Americas that brought him to Australia but, during an interview in 1910,[1] he said that he also had held other jobs during those early years, including as a fireman in Melbourne (1901) and a railway yard foreman in Auckland, New Zealand.

In his defence, he stated that the birds had been shipped from Durban in the same cages, and had been inspected upon arrival in port by the 'Chief Stock Inspector and the manager of the Zoological Gardens'.

[22] It is likely that, while in Western Australia, Ellis Joseph had made the acquaintance of Ernest Albert Le Souef, first director of the Perth Zoo from 1898 to 1935.

In May 1909, Ellis Joseph was in Brisbane exhibiting two chimpanzees that had been trained to perform,[24] but when he gave his long interview to the Barrier Miner in April 1910, was at Broken Hill with just one called 'Casey'.

[1] In June 1909, 'Casey' was performing in Mackay[28] and Charters Towers, before heading to Townsville and Cairns, keeping to the warmer parts of Queensland, during the winter of that year,[26] probably with Casey's health in mind.

[28][30][31][23] The range of trained behaviours demonstrated Joseph's considerable skill and achievement as an animal trainer, and hints at a level of attachment between 'Casey' and his owner.

[36] Fox lost an eye in the same incident and, after being fined £2[37] and paying £300 in compensation to the dead woman's estate,[38] he took 'Casey' to the U.S.A. Casey died at Tampa, Florida in January 1917.

By late 1911, he was making another expedition to West Africa to collect specimens,[40] some of which he sold to the Perth Zoo upon his return in 1912, and was shipping significant numbers of birds and animals.

[2] Once the connection with zoos had been made, Joseph had customers ready to take creatures he captured and his reputation as a major dealer in wildlife grew.

Joseph was interested mainly in capturing live animals for profit, not in hunting big game or collecting dead specimens for museums.

[13] In 1922, as a result of their efforts, it became known publicly that Ellis Joseph had earlier entered into an exclusive arrangement for a period of five-years, under which he was to receive a half-share of profits from sales (net of transport and other costs) but was guaranteed a minimum of £1000 per annum.

He described what he had found as follows:[2] This trip I captured 73 monkeys of various kinds, 16 deer, chimpanzees, eagles, ostriches, a mermaid, a servalina, two bush pigs, 964 grey parrots, and those other things I mentioned previously.

The shipment was reported as follows[50] "Bulking largest are two magnificent bull bison, captured in Montana; and next in size are two elk, the latter pair and some of the other animals being for the Sydney Zoological Gardens."

"The other inhabitants of this floating menagerie ...... are 14 bears black, brown, and cinnamon - several deer, eight peccary (Mexican wild boar), flve coyotes (prairie wolves), three beavers, several minx, a number of squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, lynx, four badgers, and a leopard cat.

[52] In late December 1914, Ellis Joseph had another cargo of animals on board ss Nordic en route from Durban to the eastern states of Australia.

[53] "a brown hyena, two lions, four leopards, two zebras, two South American llamas, Moufflons, Barbary sheep, blesbok, springbok, ducker bok, impalla, and sable antelopes, jackals, lemurs, two South African elephants, a Livingstone eland, Patagonian hares, a rhinoceros, 40 apes and baboons of different kinds, an Aldebarra tortoise from the Seychelles Islands, pythons and birds of all descriptions."

2 mountain lions, 5 skunks, 100 snakes, 100 parrots, 100 finches, 2 llamas, 20 white swans, 7 possums, 40 alligators, 21 tortoises,.2 gilla monsters, 1 woolley monkey".

[60][61] On Anzac Day (25 April) 1921, he was reunited - in front of a hundred or so onlookers - with his former pet chipmazee 'Casey', whom he had sold to the Taronga Park Zoo before leaving for America in 1920.

None could be found in the city, and efforts were made to get some, but the dear little thing would not eat anything else, and he fretted and died after a week.With the assistance of the Australian naturalist and expert on monotremes, Henry Burrell, Ellis Joseph took the first live platypus to be seen outside Australia to the United States in 1922.

[11][73][74] Burrell wrote later, "I am glad to say that good fortune eventually favored me, since on June 30, 1922, I landed in San Francisco with the first living platypus ever brought to America.

"[74] Ellis Joseph wrote about the events of the long journey and his efforts—from 1916 onward—to export a platypus, in an article for Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society that was quoted in The Journal (Adelaide) of 7 April 1923.

Public and expert opinion was changing in favour of animal welfare and conservation of wildlife in its natural environment,[80] and it is likely that Joseph's reputation had suffered some damage due to the revelations about his contractual arrangements in 1922.

In October 1925, an auction was held at 'Highfield Hall' for 'building materials' including a large quantity of hardwood timber, a 60-foot long shed, 170 bird cages, incubators, a brooder and a tip-dray with horse and harness, on the "instructions from Mrs. Moore, who is acting for Mr.

[86] Ellis Joseph's house and estate, its luxurious furnishings, his possessions—including a "Magnificent collection of valuable Skins"—and his motor car—a 1920 Buick— were put to a second auction on 5 December 1925, "under instructions from and for and on account of Mrs. H.J.

"[8] "Molly the orangutan", an animal who was said to have been captured by Ellis Joseph in Borneo,[87] and who belonged to the same Mr Thomas Fox of Marrickville who had bought the first 'Casey', toured Australia into the early 1930s.

Ellis Joseph appears to have relocated at least some of his Australian menagerie from 'Highfield Hall' in Sydney (sold by 1926[14][82]) to a location at Conner Street and Hollers Avenue in the Bronx, New York.