The AZA has recommended female elephants begin breeding as early as age 8 so that they will birth their first calves around the age of 10. We've been seeing this in the Asian population with several cows like Tupelo, Belle, and soon Achara as well.
Very good chance it is Kianga.
We've seen more and more examples of cows breeding at around 8 years old lately on the Asian front as others have mentioned, and (while I could be wrong) I don't think there'd be a difference in the reccomendation for Africans.
.
Same goes for Kianga experience wise. She's been in the herd and witnessed many calves born, whereas with Luna this would've only been her second (following Stella back in 2016).
It would be great for Donna and Vasha to have at least one more calf each in all honesty. Both are wildborn, and any calves with Mac would of course carry that value. But it isn't unheard of for females to stop being bred around age 40, so perhaps that is the case here. I hope it's not, but we can't be sure!
How is Disney's facility space-wise? From what Ive seen they have one main viewing yard and a behind the scenes yard (Going off of memory here lol) that they rotate between the males, Donna (plus daughters and sometimes Kianga) and Vasha (plus Kianga and sometimes some of Donna's girls). The stall in breeding may potentially have been to save space for future calves of the younger girls.
That's really interesting, have Donna and Vasha ever lived cohesively? I guess I just assumed they did. When Rafiki was alive, who did she live with?
Disney has also stated that there's not currently a matriarch (as of a few years ago at least) and none of the girls have showed interest in stepping up, which I imagine contributes to the disharmony.
Its certianly interesting seeing how some zoos opt to hold non-compatible, non reproductive animals in breeding facilities. Fort Worth with Angel and Colonal, plus Columbus with Connie and Hank.
This comes down to a common problem with zoos, and that's the disconnect and/or conflict between what is best for the population and what is best for the individual animals. From a purely population management stand point, you're absolutely correct that non-reproductive animals don't "need" to be at these breeding facilities. However, that doesn't mean that these zoos, in conjunction with the SSP, haven't decided that staying at their current facilities is in the best interest of those individual animals. It's a relatively common thing for zoos to have to juggle, and is sometimes quite difficult (especially when dealing with a high profile animal), as oftentimes what is "best" from a population management perspective isn't what is considered "best" for the individual animals. Oftentimes, when this is the case, there isn't really a "correct" answer of which to prioritize.
Especially given that there aren't facilities readily "available" to care for animals that don't quite fit at breeding facilities. There's technically TES, but I don't thinking sending every post reproductive, socially testy cow there is an automatic soloution (and nor do I think the SSP does either). As for the bulls, there's practically no facility that could take them long-term besides potentially Miami, and even that's a stretch imo.
I don't think there's a problem right now nessecarily, but going forward I can see issues arising quickly.
Combining Jackson and Mabu's genes at a breeding powerhouse such as San Diego, at this point, would be one of the worst decisions the SSP could make imo. Any calves produced with Mabu's daughters would be some of the least genetically valuable elephants in the region, and would be, frankly, a complete waste of the wildborn genes that the herd has.
