Cool pic of him. The tusk looked long when viewed from the side.Here's a photo of Heman and his single tusk:
Australasian Asian Elephant Population 2022
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I believe like most bull elephants in the region, he probably damaged it somehow, which resulted in an infection which led to the removal of his tusk. Luk Chai and Man Jai at Melbourne have no tusks whatsoever, both tusks for both elephants were removed due to risk of infection.
Thanks for making this list. It was more than I realised too. This is the tusk status of the bulls we have:
Sabai - 6 yrs (both intact)
Ashoka - 8 yrs (both intact)
Kavi - 8 yrs (both intact)
Man Jai - 9 yrs (both removed)
Pathi Harn - 12 yrs (both intact)
Luk Chai - 13 yrs (both removed)
Gung - 22 yrs (both intact)
Putra Mas - 33 yrs (both intact)
It appeared longer when I saw him in 1977 and looked in better condition
He was housed with cows, so I imagine they trimmed it for that reason alone.
At the time, Heman would've been in his early 20's, so I imagine he would've had impressive tusks. Do you remember if he had both at the time?
Only the one when I saw him but a very impressive bull
Heman lost his tusk when he fell into the trench barrier at Taronga Zoo's Elephant Temple and broke the tusk. The interior part became infected so had to be surgically removed.
I never liked the former Taronga elephant exhibit, far to small and just about all concrete that I can remember not to mention the trench which are a big risk. There's a video on YouTube showing the huge Radha of Emma being knocked into a trench, its not worth the risk.
Here’s a photo of Heman with both tusks. He looks to be in his late teens/early 20’s in this photo - so not long before you saw him (with one tusk). He was certainly an impressive bull.
Source: - Elephant NewsAttachments
I could be a couple of years off on when I did see him but he was more developed than that and one tusk only.
Looking at the wall behind him was the same type of walls separating the black rhino pens
He would have been 21 in 1977 (born 1956), so it’s safe to say he would have been in his mid teens in that photo. He had truly massive tusks in comparison to Gung and even Putra Mas at that age.
It’s a real shame there wasn’t time for him to breed with the Thai cows that arrived in 2006. It would have been great to have the genes of this Taronga icon and valuable founder in the region.
I agree but his move to TWPZ was to little to late
Although I understand the reasoning was behind them wanting to do full contact with the Thai imports and bull facilities were built two years later, it’s such a shame there wasn’t time to do AI. He’d have had to have been trained for it and AI didn’t commence with Porntip until mid-2008, but still. It would mean we had a fourth founder male represented in the region.
Gung was initially going to Auckland, and when Auckland put down their plans, Gung was left with no where to go, but Taronga. Taronga would've chosen him any day (being a young bull) compared to the elderly Heman who had yet to prove himself, despite having the chance. Heman was still at Dubbo, and so could have theoretically been used for AI later on; and it was a shame he died so soon after the Thai imports to prevent his.
It's regrettable that elephant semen doesn't freeze/thaw well. It'd be great if we could have stored semen from both Heman and Bong Su, though in the case of the latter, at least he has two surviving sons in the region.
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