Menagerie Economics

The 1850 Times obituary of George Wombwell also provides some interesting information about menagerie economics of the time:

The value of wild animals, like everything else, varies, according to supply and demand. Tigers have been sold as high as 300 pounds, but at other times they can be had for 100 pounds. A good panther is worth 100 pounds; hyenas, from 30 to 40 pounds; zebras from 150 to 200 pounds. The rarer kinds of monkeys are very valuable; and lamas and gnu always exceedingly high. Upon lions, lionesses, and elephants it is impossible to fix any price. Two cubs is the usual litter of the lioness, but Wombwell formerly had an old one which repeatedly dropped four. In these cases she nursed two and neglected the others; but Mr Wombwell had a beautiful pointer bitch, which in her lifetime suckled four lions.

The cost of Mr. Wombwell’s three establishments was enormous – on an average, at least 35 pounds a day each. His caravans amounted to upwards of forty, and his stud – the finest breed of draft horses – varied from about 110 to 120. The expenses of his bands were estimated at 40 pounds per week; while the amount he paid for turnpike tolls in the course of a year formed a prominent item in his expenditure. Even the ale of one of his elephants came to something throughout the twelve months, to say nothing of loaves (the best bread), grass, hay; and the capacious maw consumed the latter article at the ratio of 168 lb. per diem.

To put all this in context, and running these costs through a couple of websites: Stephen Morley's calculation system puts 100 pounds in 1850 at a value of 11, 600 pounds in 2017. The Measuring Worth calculator suggests a minimum value for 100 pounds in 1850 to be just under 10,000 pounds in today's terms.

This by any accounting was a massively expensive operation, and can only have survived if public interest and willingness to pay was at a premium level. And if - unlike George Wombwell junior - you were able to keep your animals alive long enough to justify the original purchase price.

Nothing to do with the Wombwells as such but their caravan life would not have been very different.
http://www.heardfamilyhistory.org.uk/images/circus%20caravans.jpg