Giant Eland Left in North America

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Jambo said:
They had three males according to Thylo, so where did these females come from?
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I am unsure, I am assuming the San Diego Zoo Safari Park or Zoo Miami as they are currently the only breeders of the species over the past couple years.
 
Mai Thai said:
I am unsure, I am assuming the San Diego Zoo Safari Park or Zoo Miami as they are currently the only breeders of the species over the past couple years.
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Good to see the African Safari Wildlife Park are still interested in them. Hopefully maybe a male is imported soon.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
This is a species I have already investigated for my ungulates in North America thread. I have identified five remaining holders of the species, with all of the animals belonging to the aforementioned International Animal Exchange, which owns African Safari Wildlife Park in Ohio.

From what I've found, we have:
-3.0 at African Safari Wildlife Park
-0.4 at Zoo Miami
-3.0 at San Diego Zoo
-0.11 at San Diego Zoo Safari Park
-1.2 at Houston Zoo

I've also heard unconfirmed reports of the species still being at Mast Farm, which is owned by the Cincinnati Zoo, though I'm not confident this is the case for the reasons explained above.

What you will see is a suspicious lack of breeding pairs here. From what I can tell the entire population is all directly related to one another and it appears collections are currently no longer breeding them. This is a little confusing, however, given that the species is still an SSP and there are still a decent number of animals left with certainly no less genetic diversity than many other hoofstock populations. I think the major issue here will be IAE, which has complete control over what is done with these animals and where they remain. Unfortunately, I am not overly optimistic for the future of this species in American zoos.

~Thylo
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The Giant Elands at Mast Farm have been transferred to other zoos or are deceased.

Jambo said:
Good to see the African Safari Wildlife Park are still interested in them. Hopefully maybe a male is imported soon.
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Yes breeding of the Giant Eland is needed badly before this species is gone from American Zoos.
 
Mai Thai said:
Yes breeding of the Giant Eland is needed badly before this species is gone from American Zoos.
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The San Diego parks and Miami have given up breeding/holding the species due to issues they had with the owner of all the giant eland in the country, the International Animal Exchange, which manages the African Safari Wildlife Park.

I’m going to tag @Kudu21 as they will likely have more information on this but I’ve heard from them that both SD parks no longer hold the species.
 
IndianRhino said:
The San Diego parks and Miami have given up breeding/holding the species due to issues they had with the owner of all the giant eland in the country, the International Animal Exchange, which manages the African Safari Wildlife Park.

I’m going to tag @Kudu21 as they will likely have more information on this but I’ve heard from them that both SD parks no longer hold the species.
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There's none at SD now, you're correct.
 
Any idea what happened to the three males at African Safari and the three that were at San Diego? I'd imagine the males from San Diego were moved to the Safari park.

It seems the African Safari Wildlife Safari is the last hope within America for this species.
 
Jambo said:
the three that were at San Diego? I'd imagine the males from San Diego were moved to the Safari park.
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They have been down to a single male at SDZ for a while now and I’m assuming the last male passed away just a few months ago (as he was there when I visited in February). The males were all castrated iirc and were moved from the Safari Park a few years back.
 
The only remaining giant eland within the AZA are the 0.4 at Miami and the 0.2 at African Safari Wildlife Park. San Diego finished dispositioning the rest of their females from the Safari Park, and the male at the zoo passed away (@IndianRhino is correct in saying that the last three males at the Zoo were all castrated when they moved over from the Safari Park). The last three males at the African Safari Wildlife Park passed away several years ago now. The facility no longer uses ZIMS, so they still show up as relict data.
 
Another species about to be gone from the U.S. though this one is interesting. I was at Houston some years back when they still had the Eland. While talking to the curator over them at the time, he couldn't wait to phase them out because dealing with the Hunt brothers was a nightmare. Never got many details but not long after I was at White Oak and heard the same thing from their curator. Something about the deal that was made had so many stipulations that it wasn't worth the headache to house them.
 
Kudu21 said:
The only remaining giant eland within the AZA are the 0.4 at Miami and the 0.2 at African Safari Wildlife Park. San Diego finished dispositioning the rest of their females from the Safari Park, and the male at the zoo passed away (@IndianRhino is correct in saying that the last three males at the Zoo were all castrated when they moved over from the Safari Park). The last three males at the African Safari Wildlife Park passed away several years ago now. The facility no longer uses ZIMS, so they still show up as relict data.
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I saw all four at Miami this week. It was definitely sad to think this may be the last time I see this amazing species. I was wondering if they planned to keep them a bit longer or if they were going to ship them out soon?
 
Kudu21 said:
The only remaining giant eland within the AZA are the 0.4 at Miami and the 0.2 at African Safari Wildlife Park. San Diego finished dispositioning the rest of their females from the Safari Park, and the male at the zoo passed away (@IndianRhino is correct in saying that the last three males at the Zoo were all castrated when they moved over from the Safari Park). The last three males at the African Safari Wildlife Park passed away several years ago now. The facility no longer uses ZIMS, so they still show up as relict data.
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So no more males. Quite sad news to see the regional population disappearing so fast. ASWP's girls are only young, so still have at least a decade ahead of them.

Are Zoo Miami's group older females?
 
Jambo said:
So no more males. Quite sad news to see the regional population disappearing so fast. ASWP's girls are only young, so still have at least a decade ahead of them.

Are Zoo Miami's group older females?
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A mix I believe. They had calves in late 2019/early 2020.
 
nczoofan said:
I saw all four at Miami this week. It was definitely sad to think this may be the last time I see this amazing species. I was wondering if they planned to keep them a bit longer or if they were going to ship them out soon?
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The last I heard, it was my understanding that they were looking to ship them out sooner rather than later, and that was with a hoofstock curator that was particularly fond of the species. That curator is now leaving, so I would be very surprised if they’re around for much longer. They’re already phasing out other species, as we speak.

nczoofan said:
A mix I believe. They had calves in late 2019/early 2020.
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The current females are 11, seven, six, and three.

The majority of the former SDZSP and Miami animals were moved to a private facility. 1.1 recently moved to a particularly wealthy AZA-certified facility…
 
Kudu21 said:
The last I heard, it was my understanding that they were looking to ship them out sooner rather than later, and that was with a hoofstock curator that was particularly fond of the species. That curator is now leaving, so I would be very surprised if they’re around for much longer. They’re already phasing out other species, as we speak.


The current females are 11, seven, six, and three.

The majority of the former SDZSP and Miami animals were moved to a private facility. 1.1 recently moved to a particularly wealthy AZA-certified facility…
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Interesting to hear. I wonder what other species they'll phase out. A few species seemed to have lesser numbers than I saw in 2020 & 2021. Those phase out's will also leave open a few spaces, so we'll see what happens.
 
nczoofan said:
Interesting to hear. I wonder what other species they'll phase out. A few species seemed to have lesser numbers than I saw in 2020 & 2021. Those phase out's will also leave open a few spaces, so we'll see what happens.
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It’ll most likely be the species you’ve seen decrease in number that end up being phased out. The steenbok were a very recent phase-out, they’re down to three Somali wild ass, etc. There will be a number of large hoofstock yards left open, but they’ll be emptied to make room for a future development, not new hoofstock species.
 
Kudu21 said:
It’ll most likely be the species you’ve seen decrease in number that end up being phased out. The steenbok were a very recent phase-out, they’re down to three Somali wild ass, etc. There will be a number of large hoofstock yards left open, but they’ll be emptied to make room for a future development, not new hoofstock species.
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A real shame Miami will be losing so many of its ungulate species. It was one of its biggest strengths, imo. It'll just end up becoming another generic city zoo.
 
SusScrofa said:
A real shame Miami will be losing so many of its ungulate species. It was one of its biggest strengths, imo. It'll just end up becoming another generic city zoo.
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That's the direction AZA policies are pushing many zoos, the species that are uncommon or low in holders continue to be dumped as official programs...
 
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