BOVALPUS

What was the Bovalpus?  An animal so called was exhibited in circuses in the United States in the 19th Century.  One guesses that with the Bo- prefix it was of the cattle or bovine stamp.  The first one to be shown was called merely a Valpus.  It was exhibited by the John Robinson Circus in 1882.  Circus historian Chang Reynolds (Pioneer Circuses of the West) suggests it was a water buffalo, but its true identity remains a mystery.  The same circus also claimed to exhibited a Taminaur and a Potchan.  No, I don't know what they were either.