By Virginia Winder
The roar of Ferdinand the Bull is the real thing.
Back in 1953, a huge Hereford was tracked down at an abattoir that used to be on New Plymouth's Clemow Rd.
New Plymouth barber Dave Julian says the bull, nicknamed Ferdinand, was one of the biggest ever to be slaughtered at the yard. But parts of it live on.
Both the head and the roar were used in the creation of the Taranaki rugby mascot.
Ferdie took a bit of coaxing to release his raging roar. "They were prodding him in the yard," Mr Julian says.
The sound of the angry beast was captured by Taranaki radio station 2XP, says former radio regular Brian Clark.
He says a man named Peter Lancashire would have taped the bull's bellow on an L2B recorder that ran on batteries. "You could only record it, you couldn't play it back."
The microphone used was an 8-ball, which, like its name, was black and perfectly round.
Back at the station the noise would have been played on a sound mirror and transferred on to an old shellac disc, which had to be played on a turntable.
Mr Clark, who was both a sports announcer and general DJ, was also one of the voices behind the rugby songs of the Ranfurly Shield era, from 1958 to 1964. He sang Ferdinand's song, which went to the tune of Robin Hood.
These days the sound of Ferdinand is in the hands of New Plymouth company Tech Sound and Video, says operations manager Kerry Smith.
He says the roar was originally on a 78 record, then transferred on to a cassette tape, then a compact disc and is now stored as a digital computer sound.
"Yes, it's still the original sound," Mr Smith says.
The tale of the head is a touch more gruesome.
Taranaki Rugby Supporters Club president Stewart Erb knows the background.
"The skin was taken and stuck to a fibreglass mould," he says.
While a few of Ferdinand's bodies failed the test of time, the head has always remained the same. "That head is 50 years old," Mr Erb says.
But the bull has had new eyes, Mr Julian adds.
In fact, after 1968 the bovine mascot began to see red.
A man called Ray Elliott made the red reflector eyes, which are still in the retired Ferdie's head.
These were powered by small batteries, so the bull's eyes flashed. "You couldn't really see them on the terraces, but anyone close could," Mr Julian says.
Ferdinand's head is on display in Puke Ariki's Taranaki Life gallery.