Australasian Asian Elephant Population 2022

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Just saw this image of Putra Mas and was shocked by how big and symmetrical his tusks are, he might eventually have the longest tusks in the region's history! Obviously, this is nothing compared to some of the bulls in Europe and the US but I Just thought some of you might like to see it.

Also, does anyone have a recent picture of Gung and how are his tusks are progressing?
 
Swanson02 said:
Keeper-Talk_Bull-Ele_h2q6952_1_1920px_banner.jpg


Just saw this image of Putra Mas and was shocked by how big and symmetrical his tusks are, he might eventually have the longest tusks in the region's history! Obviously, this is nothing compared to some of the bulls in Europe and the US but I Just thought some of you might like to see it.

Also, does anyone have a recent picture of Gung and how are his tusks are progressing?
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Wow, his tusks have really grown since I saw him six years ago. He's matured into an impressive bull. Bong Su (by virtue of his age) had bigger tusks (albeit trimmed), but Putra Mas isn't far behind:

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/v...s/news-story/05a1030e07d3e5ac5416cb77e89cb3c7
 
Swanson02 said:
Is there any reason for why Bong Su's tusks were oddly skewed?
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He grew up surrounded by concrete and bars, so I'm guessing he jarred them at some stage. He was lucky to maintain them into adulthood considering how many young bulls in the region have fractured theirs and subsequently had them removed.

With the move to open range zoos, we''ll hopefully see more bulls retain their tusks.
 
Zoofan15 said:
He grew up surrounded by concrete and bars, so I'm guessing he jarred them at some stage. He was lucky to maintain them into adulthood considering how many young bulls in the region have fractured theirs and subsequently had them removed.

With the move to open range zoos, we''ll hopefully see more bulls retain their tusks.
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I did notice that he did have a long crack in one of his tusks. The Irish boys and Pathi Harn seem to be developing quite nice tusks. Obviously, there are not as many pictures of him but Gung seems to have quite small tusks for his age. Maybe TWPZ over trim?
 
Swanson02 said:
I did notice that he did have a long crack in one of his tusks. The Irish boys and Pathi Harn seem to be developing quite nice tusks. Obviously, there are not as many pictures of him but Gung seems to have quite small tusks for his age. Maybe TWPZ over trim?
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I too was wondering that as I've seen photos of Bong Su in Melbourne Zoo's guidebook from 1992 and his tusks were considerably larger than Gung's at that age. I'd otherwise guess there's a genetic component related to it, which may even influence what cows grow tushes (as this also varies).

Trimming at Dubbo is possible given the bulls interactions with the cows versus Putra Mas, who lives alone.
 
Swanson02 said:
Keeper-Talk_Bull-Ele_h2q6952_1_1920px_banner.jpg


Just saw this image of Putra Mas and was shocked by how big and symmetrical his tusks are, he might eventually have the longest tusks in the region's history! Obviously, this is nothing compared to some of the bulls in Europe and the US but I Just thought some of you might like to see it.

Also, does anyone have a recent picture of Gung and how are his tusks are progressing?
Click to expand...


Very impressive. But I must ask which bull in USA has that long tusks? The longest I know is Billy but his is not even long as Putra Mas. Radza at Emmen had impressive tusks.
 
Best tusks in North America is Dahlip at Miami by a fairly significant degree.

Also in regards to Bong Su’s unusual straight tusk, it could have been natural, or caused by damage. Thai, a bull at Zurich in Switzerland, has a very similar tusk conformation, one curved like normal, and the other unusually straight. Even more interestingly, his straight tusk just started to grow like that, he did break off one of his tusks right at the sulcus, however that’s one that’s continued to grow normally. A bull in Canada, George, originally had both of his tusks very normal looking, however both of them have turned unusually straight as he has matured, despite no damage occurring to them.

As for Gung, he just naturally has smaller tusks. A good analogy would be the old bull Hussein at Hagenbecks Tierpark in Germany. He virtually never had any work done to his tusks right up until the very very end of his life, however they just naturally maintained at a fairly modest size.
 
Also sadly, Putra Mas’s stunningly long tusks are no more :( at some point in the fairly recent past, they were trimmed back about a foot or so. They’re still fairly nice, but not as nice as they once were.
 
Swanson02 said:
Keeper-Talk_Bull-Ele_h2q6952_1_1920px_banner.jpg


Just saw this image of Putra Mas and was shocked by how big and symmetrical his tusks are, he might eventually have the longest tusks in the region's history! Obviously, this is nothing compared to some of the bulls in Europe and the US but I Just thought some of you might like to see it.

Also, does anyone have a recent picture of Gung and how are his tusks are progressing?
Click to expand...
They have grown a lot since I saw him in 2000 . I also remember that Heman of Taronga had one huge tusk
 
ZCChip said:
Very impressive. But I must ask which bull in USA has that long tusks? The longest I know is Billy but his is not even long as Putra Mas. Radza at Emmen had impressive tusks.
Click to expand...

Dahlip I would think has heavier and longer tusks, while Spike would have heavier tusks. I was also including historical bulls too so Ranchipur had larger tusks. Australasia hasn't had that many bulls get to full size or an oldish age. I could only name Heman, Bong Su, and Congo prior to the bulls alive now who reached a decent age where they were able to develop nice tusks.
 
Swanson02 said:
Dahlip I would think has heavier and longer tusks, while Spike would have heavier tusks. I was also including historical bulls too so Ranchipur had larger tusks. Australasia hasn't had that many bulls get to full size or an oldish age. I could only name Heman, Bong Su, and Congo prior to the bulls alive now who reached a decent age where they were able to develop nice tusks.
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One of the most impressive set of tusks I believe was on the late Radza of Emman zoo a truly massive impressive bull, some video of him can still be seen on YouTube!
 

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Swanson02 said:
Australasia hasn't had that many bulls get to full size or an oldish age. I could only name Heman, Bong Su, and Congo prior to the bulls alive now who reached a decent age where they were able to develop nice tusks.
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Also Congo was an African bull, which makes comparisons difficult with the bulls we have now.

In addition to the Asian bulls you listed, Rajah at Auckland Zoo reached the age of 19 years. Due to a combination of genes and poor nutrition, he hardly developed tusks at all.

Note, the tusks below are replicas of his actual tusks at his date of death in 1936:

Rajah the Indian Elephant (1917-1936)

Rajah the Indian Elephant (1917-1936)

  • Media owner Zoofan15
  • Date added
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Auckland War Memorial Museum 05/12/2020.
 
Re. Bong Su; his tusks were rather skewed and he damaged them at one point in his early years at Melbourne. One tusk always jutted out straight - which is unusual for bull elephants.

Here's a photo of him:

452960A900000578-4961792-image-m-17_1507538028301.jpg


Even if it was related to genetics, we could've possible seen the same thing with Man Jai and Pathi Harn; and although Man Jai's tusks were chopped off recently, his (and Pathi Harns) were rather normal.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Also Congo was an African bull, which makes comparisons difficult with the bulls we have now.
Rajah the Indian Elephant (1917-1936)

Rajah the Indian Elephant (1917-1936)

  • Media owner Zoofan15
  • Date added
  • Comments 2
Auckland War Memorial Museum 05/12/2020.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected we have actually had quite a few bulls surpass 20 in Australasia, more than I thought. The most impressive set of tusks so far would probably go to Ghandi too. These were all the bulls I could find an age on.

Bulls who died over the age of 20 -
Jumbaroo - unknown (apparently was 15 when he was imported in 1922 with an unknown death date so probably made it past 20)
Jumbo - 21 yrs
Tommy - 24 yrs
Congo - 42 yrs
Bong Su - 43 yrs
Heeman (Heman) - 50 yrs
Ghandi - 56 yrs

All the bulls that died under 20 -
Sanook - < 1 yrs
Jai Dee - 3 yrs
Dumbo - 6 yrs
Tommy (Jumbo) - 9 yrs
David - 19 yrs
Rajah - 19 yrs

Bulls still alive -
Sabai - 6 yrs
Ashoka - 8 yrs
Kavi - 8 yrs
Man Jai - 9 yrs
Pathi Harn - 12 yrs
Luk Chai - 13 yrs
Gung - 22 yrs
Putra Mas - 33 yrs
 
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