- Was an elephant.
- Was executed for killing three of her trainers. 1,500 spectators watched her get electrocuted.
- She was originally to be hanged but the ASPCA protested. Thomas A. Edison suggested electrocution.
- A memorial dedicated to her was erected in Coney Island in 2003.
- Topsy was about 28 years old at the time of her death. She was still relatively young by the standards of her species. Asian elephants live on average for 60 years in the wild and 80 in captivity.
- Topsy was apparently named after the fictional character Topsy, an African-American slave girl featured in the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- Topsy was considered an unusually ill-behaved elephant by the American press, but her behavior is not that unusual for Asian elephants. Both male and female members of the species can exhibit aggressive behavior and trample victims with their feet or knees. Even trained elephants can be dangerous to humans.
- There were no known children of descendants of Topsy. Asian elephants have problems reproducing in captivity. Modern studies have noted that even when a female elephant is impregnated, there is as a high chance that the pregnancy will result in stillbirth. Otherwise successful births can still fail to reproduce the species in captivity, because of high infant mortality and frequent instances of infanticide.
- Topsy was an Asian elephant (species name: Elephas maximus), the only elephant species native to Asia. Their habitat range includes various countries in South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and East Asia. They have been an endangered species since 1986, with less than 60,000 individuals still alive by the beginning of the 21st century.
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