One of the world's best-known and oldest circus companies has been forced to close, partly because of declining ticket sales.
The Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus has performed for millions of fans during its 146-year reign.
It was formed when the Ringling Brothers - the hosts of a popular vaudeville show - bought out Barnum & Bailey, who created PT Barnum's "Greatest Show On Earth".
The bosses of the iconic American spectacle, which ends in May, said falling audiences were partly to blame along with high operating costs and ongoing battles with animal rights groups.
Kenneth Feld, chairman and chief executive of Feld Entertainment, which owns the circus, said: "This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the entire family."
Over the years, generations of Americans had been thrilled by the arrival of circus' exotic animals and death-defying acrobatics.
PT Barnum got a taste for showbusiness with his first variety troupe called Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater in the 1830s and later went on the road with various 'freak' acts.
But it was when he created PT Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome in 1870 that he first entered the circus business.
His life as a showman, politician and businessman was immortalised with the musical Barnum, which had a long run in the West End in the 1980s.
About 15 years after the Greatest Show On Earth began touring the US, jugglers the Ringling Brothers - Alf, Al, Charles, John and Otto - took their act on tour.
The two circuses competed for several years before Barnum's collaborator James Bailey died and the Ringlings bought out their rival.
Long before every home in America had a TV set, the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus toured the country by train.
In the 1910s, the Ringling Bros big top was said to use 335 horses, 26 elephants, 16 camels and other assorted animals that travelled on 92 railway carriages.
But it became increasingly difficult in the late 20th century to compete with the huge range of other entertainment on offer.
The circus has also been targeted by animal rights activists, including the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals group, which said it was pleased by the closure.
Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president, said it "heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit."
The circus said its animals - including lions, tigers, camels, alpacas, kangaroos and llamas - will go to suitable homes.
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