North American Asian Elephant Population 2023

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Yassa said:
1. TES also has the space to keep Nicole apart from the others is she wants to, without compromising the welfare of one of the elephants involved. Old females that are not integrated into a multigenerational familys are notoriously difficult to entertain as they are not very playful and often not interested in socialising with (unrelated) females, and without natural vegetation to feed on these females usually spend their days rocking and bored. Lets be honest, we have all seen it. It s much easier to keep a bachelor group with young bulls or a family group with calves busy in a zoo environment; they do not depend as much on natural vegetation as these socially difficult older females. Sadly the zoos interested in taking old females are usually those with the worst facilities, because they do not have enough space for a breeding group and not the safety facilities for a bachelor group. Like San Antonio zoo when they got Nicole…

3. Nicole herself has been exposed to TB since she was a longtime member of the Ringling Blue Unit. Ringling had many many TB infected elephants again and again and never imposed strong quarantine for those infected, and therefore it was an ongoing problem. TB can lay dormant for many years before getting active, and bringing Nicole into a heathly zoo herd would be a risk for the other elephants there. At TES she will be with other elephants who have been exposed to TB (sadly all Asian elephants at TES are, and that is not the fault of the sanctuary).
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I do agree TES is in a much better situation now as for as management goes. But Nicole wont have the abundance of friends to choose from as many people believe. Since she is not positive with TB she will go to the Asian Habitat that currently holds Sissy and Nosey (the African elephant who has a history of being exposed to TB). If she doesn’t get along with Sissy she will be on her own and Nosey doesn’t share the same space as her asian neighbors. The other 4 Billie, Ronnie, Debbie and Minnie are all TB positive and are separated in the Quarantine Habitats.

TB is treatable in elephants why TES has not dealt with this remains unknown (maybe not enough money). It’s been along time when most AZA zoos treat a positive case and the elephant is free of TB within a year.
 
Its not true that TES hasnt treated TB positive elephants, and definately not for the Lack of money. Sissy did test positive a few years ago and was treated with antibiotics for a year or so. However there is no way to know for sure if the treatment was sucessful in an elephant. Therefore the best is to keep elephants exposed to TB and those who tested positive in the past and were treated seperate from healthy ones indefinately.

At TES, the TB status of Sissy/Nosey in the Asian barn and the 4 elephants in the quarantine barn is the same (all have been exposed to TB or tested positive in the past). I dont think TB is the reason why they are managed seperately. While being treated for TB, Sissy even lived with the Hawthorn elephants in the Q area for a year or two but was moved back to be with Shirley (who was still alive then) and Tarra. In the future, they could move Nicole to the Q barn, or they could move the Q elephants to the big Asian barn.
 
Just to Claris, TES did treat serveral of their elephants for TB, not just Sissy.
 
IndianRhino said:
Fort worth’s calf (Romeo x Belle) has been named Travis! Interesting that they broke their tradition of giving their calves B names.
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They're still sticking with a Texas theme (which is still the same they've previously used). Just this time it isn't a 'B' Texas themed name.

Interestingly, Houston also names their elephants with Texas themed names; Teddy, Winnie, Nelson ect.
 
Jambo said:
They're still sticking with a Texas theme (which is still the same they've previously used). Just this time it isn't a 'B' Texas themed name.

Interestingly, Houston also names their elephants with Texas themed names; Teddy, Winnie, Nelson ect.
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Houston seems to like naming their baby elephants after bears (Teddy Bear, Winnie-The-Pooh, Baylor University (sports teams called the Bears), etc.)
 
While I can’t comment on the first two, Baylor was absolutely named after Baylor University. They played a very large part in Houston’s herpes detection and treatment program, and that is how Baylor received his name. Tupelo also received her name under similar circumstances.

African lion Safari is also notorious for this, virtually all of the elephant calves they’ve had born there have been named in honour of either past circus elephants, notable elephant trainers, or for one of their more recent calves, Imke, named after a researcher who’s worked with the park for several years.
 
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Sabu has been introduced to Rudy and Sunny at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and they’ve been together for the last 5 days with the goals of breeding to occur. Interestingly enough, the zoo did NOT mention anything about Sabu and Phoebe being together. Regardless though I’m glad to see Rudy and Sunny FINALLY breeding and maybe after all these years they’ll have their first calves.
 
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John Marchwick said:
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Sabu has been introduced to Rudy and Sunny at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and they’ve been together for the last 5 days with the goals of breeding to occur. Interestingly enough, the zoo did NOT mention anything about Sabu and Phoebe being together. Regardless though I’m glad to see Rudy and Sunny FINALLY and maybe after all these years they’ll have their first calves.
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Wonderful news. Hopefully both will soon conceive.

Re. Phoebe, she only just gave birth less than two years ago to Frankie, so whilst she can conceive I'm assuming Columbus is more focused on getting Rudy and Sunny pregnant for the time being. Sabu's still going to be there for another year or two so I don't think there's any rush to get Phoebe pregnant again ASAP.
 
Article on Fort Worth’s breeding programme:

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article273189065.html

The number of elephants in zoos has also declined. Fouraker said many zoos shied away from keeping males because they are more destructive and harder to maintain than females. Now zoo elephant populations are aging out with no offspring to replace them.

“That’s big picture zoos as a whole,” Fouraker said. “We have ... elephants that are coming up in age and we will have elephants well into the future because we have young females coming up. But not all zoos were doing that.”

Full article in link.
 
ZCChip said:
Houston Zoo

Duncan at Houston zoo is moving. Does anyone know to where? I can not think of a place that has breeding cow(s) that doesn’t have a bull? St. Louis maybe?
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He’s related to the girls at Saint Louis, at least to Jade, Maliha and Priya anyways so I doubt that’s where he’s going.
 
ZCChip said:
Houston Zoo

Duncan at Houston zoo is moving. Does anyone know to where? I can not think of a place that has breeding cow(s) that doesn’t have a bull? St. Louis maybe?
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Interesting move considering Baylor and Tucker are still there. Could he be headed to a bachelor herd?
 
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