North American Asian Elephant Population 2023

Status
Not open for further replies.
I can see him moving to Denver, as their exhibit is built to hold up to eight bull elephants, and they currently have five, so Duncan moving to Denver is a possibility.

The post from the zoo says he’s moving in hopes to become a dad. I don’t think this would apply to a facility like Denver unless they’re misleading the GP. Or poor wording of course.
 
Is there a chance he may go to Fort Worth, OKC or White Oak? LA or National'd be an interesting choice as well, especially given Trong Nhi and Nhi Linh's relatively recent arrival at the latter facility.
 
Is there a chance he may go to Fort Worth, OKC or White Oak? LA or National'd be an interesting choice as well, especially given Trong Nhi and Nhi Linh's relatively recent arrival at the latter facility.

Duncan is also related to all of the OKC breeding cows…
 
Honestly, I think Duncan is still a wee bit young for breeding yet.

the announcement is quite vague. I also wonder if it’s a bachelor herd due to his age, then onwards to a breeding herd. Thai does not have angus offspring outside the Houston zoo.
 
Denver group is pretty just males. Boy isn't that going to be challenging several adult males living harmoniously together?
 
Denver is a fine place to go. Given their current age distribution, how many individuals they have, and the natures of the animals involved, Duncan will likely fit in just fine.

However, I would not be at all surprised to see one of their older boys (most likely Bodhi) end up departing at some point in the near future to serve as a breeding bull elsewhere (hopefully St Louis) as well. He’s old enough and large enough to command the respect of cows, socially affable, and is proven fertile via AI.
 
Denver is a fine place to go. Given their current age distribution, how many individuals they have, and the natures of the animals involved, Duncan will likely fit in just fine.

However, I would not be at all surprised to see one of their older boys (most likely Bodhi) end up departing at some point in the near future to serve as a breeding bull elsewhere (hopefully St Louis) as well. He’s old enough and large enough to command the respect of cows, socially affable, and is proven fertile via AI.

Groucho could be another one given he’s a proven breeder and has sired 2 daughters at Fort Worth.
 
Groucho is at Denver to stay. He's in retirement there and serves a very valuable mentor role in the current bachelor herd.
He’s not in “retirement”, they’re still actively collecting semen from him and he is very actively socializing with and serving as a mentor to younger bulls. Retirement would imply a complete cease-fire of any attempt to breed from him at all, and him being housed largely either by himself or with geriatric cows, neither which are the case for him.

Regardless, I have my doubts about Groucho leaving as well, not only because he*is* an excellent mentor bull, but mainly just due to age. I would be very, very happy if he was moved into a natural breeding situation, but at 52 years old, he is absolutely an older bull, and while transfers for similar aged, if not older animals can and do occur, they’re not without risk.
 
Houston zoo explained Duncan's move on instagram:
"Correct, Baylor is a couple of years older and both him and Duncan share the same parents. However, Duncan is naturally much more self-reliant and confident than Baylor is. These personality traits make Duncan a better choice and will really help him to integrate into a new herd."

Additionally some visitor gave more details:
"last time I was at the zoo I was told by a keeper that Duncan was the bull who’d butt heads and fight with Thailand the most. So much in fact that they couldn’t even be on enclosure together. So that might be a big reason as to why he’s leaving instead of his older brother."
 
Regarding Nicole, TES published a video of her first days at the sanctuary shortly after her arrival and you can see that she is in pretty poor shape. She is walking very slowly and her stance shows that she is trying to get her weight off her front feet, indicating severe pain in her front feet/legs. I had hoped she´d have more time at TES, but I am not surprised she died so soon. Her feet/legs must have been in horrible condition.

Regarding bulls, integrating Duncan at Denver is probably pretty easy since he s far younger then the other bulls and therefore automatically the lowest ranking group member. If there is a natural hierarcy due to the age and size of the animals, integrating bull elephants into a bachelor group is far easier then integrating unrelated female elphants.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top