African Elephants in Europe 2023

Tragic news... I'm really happy that I had several opportunities to see him. He was truly impressive.
 
Extremely sad news, the great producer Tusker has been euthanized at Basel, due to a decrease in quality of life from Tuberculosis.

He was a super bull, good with the cows and calves, and of course siring many, many offspring. In hindsight, it also makes a lot of sense why he wasn’t transferred to Spain some time ago, likely specifically because of the TB.

Of course he leaves behind a massive legacy of many calves, and grand calves, through his offspring Kibo, Tika, Bongi, and Pina Nessie, with many more to come down the road, I am certain.

Rest in peace, Tusker :(
A person asked about it the zoo and they said Tusker is still alive. He is sick but alive and there isn't exact diagnose yet about his illness.
 
Extremely sad news, the great producer Tusker has been euthanized at Basel, due to a decrease in quality of life from Tuberculosis.

He was a super bull, good with the cows and calves, and of course siring many, many offspring. In hindsight, it also makes a lot of sense why he wasn’t transferred to Spain some time ago, likely specifically because of the TB.

Of course he leaves behind a massive legacy of many calves, and grand calves, through his offspring Kibo, Tika, Bongi, and Pina Nessie, with many more to come down the road, I am certain.

Rest in peace, Tusker :(
The above is NOT correct. Tusker is still alive at Zoo Basel. Zoo Basel has informed a user of German zoo forum ZooFreunde that he is still alive. They did report that he is sick at the moment, but that a diagnosis has not yet been made.
 
I saw the same news this morning. Very confusing as I got my info directly from the Wuppertal Zoo website.

Alas, assuming he is indeed still alive, fingers crossed he manages to recover from whatever is ailing him!
 
Extremely sad news, the great producer Tusker has been euthanized at Basel, due to a decrease in quality of life from Tuberculosis.

He was a super bull, good with the cows and calves, and of course siring many, many offspring. In hindsight, it also makes a lot of sense why he wasn’t transferred to Spain some time ago, likely specifically because of the TB.

Of course he leaves behind a massive legacy of many calves, and grand calves, through his offspring Kibo, Tika, Bongi, and Pina Nessie, with many more to come down the road, I am certain.

Rest in peace, Tusker :(
They shared this now.
 
I saw the same news this morning. Very confusing as I got my info directly from the Wuppertal Zoo website.

Alas, assuming he is indeed still alive, fingers crossed he manages to recover from whatever is ailing him!

The news was posted on a Zoo Wuppertal fan site not the website of the zoo. Tusker was, still alive at that time.

But he indeed had TB and was euthanized this morning, as Zoo Basel communicated today.

Elefantenbulle Tusker ist tot
 
West Midlands Safari Park have announced the arrival of 23 year old bull Coco (from Howletts) on their Instagram.
West Midland Safari Park (@westmidsafari) • Instagram photos and videos
"WELCOME, COCO! ⁠

We’re thrilled to share that last week, we welcomed 23-year-old bull African elephant, Coco, to the Safari Park! He will be a great companion for Five, our resident female, and we’re hoping the pair will be able to breed in the future ⁠

The next steps for Coco are to continue to introduce him to his new habitat, including outdoor pools, mud wallows, state-of-the-art elephant house, dust baths and feeding areas. When he is fully settled, he will then be slowly introduced to Five, by allowing them to meet in neighbouring outdoor paddocks initially.⁠

African elephants face an uncertain future and are listed as ‘endangered’, with the wild population declining due to poaching for their ivory and loss of habitat. This is why it’s ever more important for wildlife collections to work together to ensure the preservation of endangered species such as African Elephants, alongside providing the best standards of animal welfare."
 
West Midlands Safari Park have announced the arrival of 23 year old bull Coco (from Howletts) on their Instagram.
West Midland Safari Park (@westmidsafari) • Instagram photos and videos
"WELCOME, COCO! ⁠

We’re thrilled to share that last week, we welcomed 23-year-old bull African elephant, Coco, to the Safari Park! He will be a great companion for Five, our resident female, and we’re hoping the pair will be able to breed in the future ⁠

The next steps for Coco are to continue to introduce him to his new habitat, including outdoor pools, mud wallows, state-of-the-art elephant house, dust baths and feeding areas. When he is fully settled, he will then be slowly introduced to Five, by allowing them to meet in neighbouring outdoor paddocks initially.⁠

African elephants face an uncertain future and are listed as ‘endangered’, with the wild population declining due to poaching for their ivory and loss of habitat. This is why it’s ever more important for wildlife collections to work together to ensure the preservation of endangered species such as African Elephants, alongside providing the best standards of animal welfare."
Great news!

Coco is a valuable, proven breeder and pairing him with an equally valuable female is a great move. Considering it's been almost a decade since Five last gave birth too makes it equally important that she concieves asap.
 
It is to be hoped Coco enjoys very much the new herd at West Midland!!
Fingers crossed for future news.
 
Great news!

Coco is a valuable, proven breeder and pairing him with an equally valuable female is a great move. Considering it's been almost a decade since Five last gave birth too makes it equally important that she concieves asap.

While he’s valuable in that he’s a proven, natural breeder, with multiple different cows, and seems to be a generally well socialized and affable bull; his genetic value is very low. His sire, Chiscos’, lineage, is, at this point, probably THE most demographically well represented lineage in Europe. Chisco has seven surviving offspring, all of them adults, all of them proven natural breeders, and all of them currently in breeding situations. He also has numerous grand and great grand offspring, some of which have started breeding as well. The current descendant count is in the low 20’s, and that number is only set to increase, even with the eventual Howletts exports.
 
Simply wonderful news, Jack has departed from Sosto to Zlin!

Hopefully this transfer will be followed by 3-4 births in the next 20-25 months, one from Kwanza, sired by Jack prior to his departure, and two from Kali and Zola. Ulu at Zlin will be the wild card. She’s never been pregnant (but to be fair, she’s never been selected for AI either), and she’s in her mid 20’s. Hopefully luck will be on their side and she conceives, but regardless, this is an excellent move all around.
 
In Aalborg cow Bibi has been put to sleep.

Aalborg Zoo on Instagram: "Fremover vil der være en elefant mindre i elefantanlægget I går blev Bibi, den ene af vores tre hun-elefanter aflivet. Hendes helbred var svækket, og hun var i tiltagende grad plaget af bivirkninger fra behandlingen af en kronisk sygdom. Bibi har i en årrække haft perioder, hvor hun fik væskeansamlinger, såkaldte ødemer, under bugen. Uden behandling ville ødemerne være livstruende. Efter flere og grundige undersøgelser og med bistand fra udenlandske elefanteksperter kom Bibi derfor i behandling med binyrebarkhormon, og sammen med kosttilskud, regelmæssige bade og ekstra hudpleje har det i en periode forhindret, at hun udviklede ødemer. Men desværre har binyrebarkhormon en række bivirkninger, der efterhånden plagede Bibi i en sådan grad, at vi besluttede, at tiden for aflivning var kommet. Beslutningen om aflivning blev truffet i samråd med avlskoordinatoren for afrikansk elefant i EAZA - European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, som Aalborg Zoo er medlem af. Der ligger altid grundige overvejelser bag, inden vi afliver et dyr, ikke mindst i denne situation. Elefanter har en tydelig personlighed, og Bibi var en i særlig grad tolerant og samarbejdsvillig elefant, der sammen med vores to øvrige hun-elefanter har været en del af havens historie i mange år. Men afskeden med Bibi var en nødvendig beslutning, hvor hensynet til elefantens velfærd vejede tungest. Vores fokus vil nu være på, at de to tilbageværende elefanter kommer til at fungere godt uden Bibi. Derfor vil vi være ekstra meget omkring dem i den kommende tid og holde nøje øje med, hvordan de reagerer."
 
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