African .vs. Asian

Writhedhornbill

Writhedhornbill

Well-Known Member
Which species of elephant are most common in zoos? African or Asian?

There is only one male forest elephant in Captivity.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
There is only one male forest elephant in Captivity.
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'Mr Hornbill' just for starters, do you know where the current Forest Elephant is?

Whipsnade had a Forest(Cyclotis) elephant bull during the 1980's, I believe.
There have been one or two others in zoos in recent years and I saw a TV programme a year or two ago which featured an elephant from a French circus, and that was almost certainly a young Forest elephant too.
 
well in the australasian region asian elephants are definitely more common than africans. in america, recent data says that demographically the african elephant ssp is in much better shape than the asian one, but i expect it will improve too.
if anyone has read books about zoos from the 70s and early 80s, the way people described gorillas is almost the same as we now talk baout elephants. i anticipate in the future elephants will be bred with the frequency of gorillas!
allowing of course for the extra gestation ;)
 
glyn said:
well in the australasian region asian elephants are definitely more common than africans. in america, recent data says that demographically the african elephant ssp is in much better shape than the asian one, but i expect it will improve too.
if anyone has read books about zoos from the 70s and early 80s, the way people described gorillas is almost the same as we now talk baout elephants. i anticipate in the future elephants will be bred with the frequency of gorillas!
allowing of course for the extra gestation ;)
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Interesting that it was widely held among zoos even up to about 1950 that it would be impossible to breed Gorillas- the first birth then occurred in Columbus Ohio, December 22nd 1956...(and she's still alive today...)

There had already been a very few Elephant births in European zoos several decades earlier than that(look on an Elephant website for exact dates) so the Elephant was actually a zoo-breeder well before the Gorilla. However, its only in the last few decades that elephant births have become relatively common.
 
I agree Glyn. Gorillas were those hard to breed, hard to keep alive animals. I too feel that elephants are goinf to go the same way. Isn't it interesting that a CIRCUS has one of the best breeding records in the entire captive world! That the Canadian place also does really well - what do these two places have in common?
 
im too tired to solve your riddle jay, but im guessing that any elephant entering the breeding program from about the last 8 years or so could be counted as a real founder, and we will see the elephant programs really get up and running, and succesful. the elephant might actually turn out to be one of the best candidates for a long term captive breeding program, mainly because of the slow generation lenght but also because the lack of breeding has met the sub-species etc are all still quite pure.
 
i know of only one forest elephant in captivity, but i have read conflicting comments on its whereabouts, i too am too lazy to check ISIS but i belive it was at a paris zoo and was then moved (?) to spain.....

in any accoundt their is no breeding program in captivity. of course i don't condone catching them, but i would have thought they would be a good candidate for captivity, being smaller, more solitary and when not, living in much samller group sizes.

they are an amazingly different looking animal aren't they..
 
I've checked on ISIS. It doesn't show the zoo. I had checked about a year ago and it said somewhere in Iran or that area of the world. It's Called CSZ LIM or something like that.
 
A little off topic, but i've just came across this video on youtube. Male elephant goes on rampage killing people and hurting another elephant in India. Frightening to see how powerful these giants can be. Pretty graphic stuff, discretion advised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx7pPxJ4qvI

Another one, male African elephant in an Israeli zoo killing a smaller female. Shocking/saddening to watch too. Don't worry abt the title, its a newsreel with another report in it.

YouTube - Blast: Chinese Fire Drill
 
that kerala video is shocking!!! even the other (attacked) bull elephant hides under the pergola thingy!
 
The Circus your talking about Jay, is that ringling brothers Centre for Elephant Conservation? They do seem to have a good success rate, but elephant conservation? they won't sell and supply only for themselves. was offered a three month contract job there. they only breed Asians, From what I've heard Asians tend to do better in zoos breeding, but longleat has a large herd of Africans. Heard a few stories of when the house asians and african together and a few crossbred calves were born... all of them died i believe.
 
The crossbreed was born to sheba at Chester. She is and Asian elephant who mated with an African I can't remember what his name was.

Longleat does not have Elephants anymore. Their old paddock has become a flamingo aviary.
 
Jarkari said:
The Circus your talking about Jay, is that ringling brothers Centre for Elephant Conservation? They do seem to have a good success rate, but elephant conservation? they won't sell and supply only for themselves.
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But what is it about Ringlings that make them so successful at breeding? And what can zoos learn from them?
 
Jarkari said:
Heard a few stories of when the house asians and african together and a few crossbred calves were born... all of them died i believe.
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A hybrid calf has only ever been born once(at least to the Zoological world's knowledge) and as Mr Hornbill says, it happened at Chester UK. The mother was the Asian female Sheba who still lives at Chester, the father an African bull 'Jumbolino' (Bubbles) who died before the calf was born. The calf lived about ten days and is somewhere in the British Natural History Museum.
 
Sheba is 51 years old. She is the oldest elephant at chester zoo. From my knowledge she has never had any babies apart from this hybrid.

Another elephant called Thi came from a logging camp in Thailand. The new female called Birma also came from this shipment from Thailand.

Birma went to a french zoo before arriving at Chester early last year. She had been kept on her own and had not seen another elephant for more than 10 years. She is very good friends with Sheba.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
Sheba is 51 years old. She is the oldest elephant at chester zoo. From my knowledge she has never had any babies apart from this hybrid.

Another elephant called Thi came from a logging camp in Thailand. The new female called Birma also came from this shipment from Thailand.

Birma went to a french zoo before arriving at Chester early last year. She had been kept on her own and had not seen another elephant for more than 10 years. She is very good friends with Sheba.
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Yes, Sheba only produced the hybrid calf 'Motty' The Asian calf Jubilee was born to 'Judy'- both were finally sent to Belfast Zoo- Judy may still be there but Jubilee died, he was never a very healthy animal.

Thi came from London Zoo (logging camp originally) but was sent to Chester because she was excessively nervous. Do you know if Upali has mated at all with the new female 'Birma' ?(came from Mauberge Zoo)
 
Birma has not been mixed with the herd fully yet. They had started it but then Thi had her baby and so she still spends a lot of time on her own. Saying this I have seen her with Sheba recently.

Upali was born at Zurich. He has fathered Chester's latest calf Raman( Thi's latest baby). He gets on well with the herd and especially with Sithami ( Sundara's mum, Thi' daughter) as they are only a few years apart.
The male at Zurich ( Upali's Dad) is mighty impressive: his tusks are Huge. Sadly their enclosure is not up to scratch and is in need of redevelopment. There is a nice crested wood partridge aviary in the elephant house.
 
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