North American Asian Elephant Population 2022

John Marchwick said:
I heard Sundara was pregnant as early as last fall but I was told by other zoochat members she wasn’t even though I had heard she was showing signs she was.
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There seems to be a lot of miscommunication around elephant pregnancies from the zoo's themselves. What results is people receiving conflicting information from the zoo on whether an elephant is pregnant based on what they do or don't want people to know. This leads to people speculating and making their own assessments - which vary in accuracy.
 
Zoofan15 said:
There seems to be a lot of miscommunication around elephant pregnancies from the zoo's themselves. What results is people receiving conflicting information from the zoo on whether an elephant is pregnant based on what they do or don't want people to know
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Well for most high profile species zoos tend to be pretty secretive about pregnancies until they're pretty certain/confident a birth will occur. Once such a pregnancy is announced it increases questions and PR, so until they're ready they prefer to keep it quiet as possible. Which is understandable.
 
Great Argus said:
Well for most high profile species zoos tend to be pretty secretive about pregnancies until they're pretty certain/confident a birth will occur. Once such a pregnancy is announced it increases questions and PR, so until they're ready they prefer to keep it quiet as possible. Which is understandable.
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It's completely understandable and is similarly done by many zoos with regards to felid births, which have a high mortality rate at the neonate stage.

The lack of communication from the zoos leads to the speculation seen on ZooChat, though obviously providing ZooChatters with up to date information is low on the list of priorities. :p
 
Zoofan15 said:
It's completely understandable and is similarly done by many zoos with regards to felid births, which have a high mortality rate at the neonate stage.
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No for sure, it's a good insurance policy against difficult PR and getting the public's hopes up. Waiting til well into the pregnancy or even til the young are a few weeks or even months old can save a lot of grief.

Zoofan15 said:
The lack of communication from the zoos leads to the speculation seen on ZooChat, though obviously providing ZooChatters with up to date information is low on the list of priorities. :p
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True, but they're not required to tell the public anything. I'd imagine they probably don't like the speculation and having things posted everywhere. Y'all spill pretty much anything and everything when it comes to elephants, hippos, and rhinos.
 
John Marchwick said:
I heard Sundara was pregnant as early as last fall but I was told by other zoochat members she wasn’t even though I had heard she was showing signs she was.
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By the looks of it, she would've been very early on last fall, so there wouldn't be any noticeable signs. Anyhow, keepers would've known as early as the next cycle following the mating (two to three months).
 
I believe that’s a video taken from last year. In the video the adult cow is Emily, the midsize calf beside her is Hannah, and the smallest is I believe Luna. I’m not sure who the one between Luna and Hannah is, but I suspect either Anna May or Gigi. The cow and older calf we see at the very end are Opal and Onyx.

Rocktons next calf will most likely come from Lily, arriving sometime between January and September of 2023.
 
Hyak_II said:
That would be George. Johnson is an easy bull to work with, but not quite take him walking around free contact in an open field easy ;)
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George is castrated isn't he? I believe that may be part of the reason he's so easy going.
 
Yazziel said:
George is said to be chemically castrated but is also confirmed to be Gigi’s father by ALS.
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Apparently he’s been castrated for years before Gigi was born so it’s actually quite likely she’s inbred and was sired by Johnson.

NOVAElephantEnthusiast said:
Did they ever announce the calves who were born after Ikme?
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Nope! We’re still waiting for information on the calves. All we know for sure is that 2 have been born and I believe a 3rd was as well but not 100% sure. @Hyak_II might know more about this.
 
IndianRhino said:
Apparently he’s been castrated for years before Gigi was born so it’s actually quite likely she’s inbred and was sired by Johnson.


Nope! We’re still waiting for information on the calves. All we know for sure is that 2 have been born and I believe a 3rd was as well but not 100% sure. @Hyak_II might know more about this.
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Yes there were three calves born last year to mothers Natasha, Opal, and Emily
 
Yazziel said:
George is said to be chemically castrated but is also confirmed to be Gigi’s father by ALS.
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IndianRhino said:
Apparently he’s been castrated for years before Gigi was born so it’s actually quite likely she’s inbred and was sired by Johnson.
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Gigi's definitely sired by Johnson; ALS only say this to possibly prevent negative scrutiny due to inbreeding. George is chemically castrated so he can't have sired Gigi. He has been for many years now (I believe for much more than a decade now).
 
Mr.Ivory said:
Yes there were three calves born last year to mothers Natasha, Opal, and Emily
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Another inbred calf to Emily then? I thought they had plans to send her elsewhere which were abandoned (I believe the destination was Fort Worth?).
 
Jambo said:
Another inbred calf to Emily then? I thought they had plans to send her elsewhere which were abandoned (I believe the destination was Fort Worth?).
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The plan was to send Emily and Nellie to Fort Worth but was indeed abandoned. I personally would've preferred sending Emily and Gigi to Fort Worth instead of Nellie and Emily as that would allow Nellie to remain with her matriarchal herd, and Emily to stay will her daughter and mate with Romeo.
 
Mr.Ivory said:
The plan was to send Emily and Nellie to Fort Worth but was indeed abandoned. I personally would've preferred sending Emily and Gigi to Fort Worth instead of Nellie and Emily as that would allow Nellie to remain with her matriarchal herd, and Emily to stay will her daughter and mate with Romeo.
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Nellie's a boy isn't he?

It would be far more logical to send Emily with her young daughter, Gigi. Leaving Gigi in the herd without any relatives would've been undesirable.
 
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