Latin American Elephant Population

Annie the elephant was another victim of the stupid law that prohibited circus animals in Mexico with no measures as to where the animals would go. Who would pay to send Annie abroad ? Not the mexican government, who has many restrictions on spending. The best and most practical solution is to send Annie to either Leon zoo or Guadalajara zoo, both of which are fine zoos which have kept and hold african elephants..
 
carlos55 said:
Annie the elephant was another victim of the stupid law that prohibited circus animals in Mexico with no measures as to where the animals would go. Who would pay to send Annie abroad ? Not the mexican government, who has many restrictions on spending. The best and most practical solution is to send Annie to either Leon zoo or Guadalajara zoo, both of which are fine zoos which have kept and hold african elephants..
Click to expand...

so they just walked away and left Annie?

Global elephant sanctuary could help with the transport costs if either zoo doesn’t work out.
 
carlos55 said:
Mexican environmental officials at Profepa have decided that Annie the abandoned female African elephant will go to Mexico City where she will join elephants Ely and Gypsy at Zoologico San Juan de Aragon. Training to move her has Already started.
Zoológico de San Juan de Aragón tendrá nueva inquilina, la elefanta Annie
Click to expand...
A sensible move and thanks to how effectively PROFEPA operates a good solution and new home within one of the major zoos in the country was founded.

Admittedly, the huge illegal trade in local wildlife is a major challenge upon the organisation and authorities to deal with. However, here we are dealing with an abandonned elephant in the circus industry in Mexico.
 
I find it funny how active the North American and European elephant population threads are while South America's elephant population is just a lost cause. :(

- If we're talking about African elephants, we only have four at the moment in Brazil. Axé, the first African elephant born in Latin America, is already thirty-seven years old while her female counterpart in Brasília, which is nearing her thirties, has yet to be joined by Chocolate. If Chocolate and Belinha ever get to live together, things might improve, but nothing's been done yet...
- Puppy, Kuky and Kenya are all destined to go to SEB, so I guess none of them will ever breed.
- Therefore, my last hopes are in the African elephants in Brazil, Chile and Colombia.

- There's only a single male Asian elephant in Brazil and he's never sired a single calf. None of our females are of reproductive age and, I believe, besides Baby from Beto Carrero World, all the remaining cows are already too old to breed.
- Since Guillermina left for the Elephant Sanctuary, Tamy is all by himself, so no prospects of breeding happening in Argentina anytime soon.

- Suriname, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay have no elephants remaining.
- I have no info on the remaining elephants of Venezuela but I believe there is a chance none remain and the elephant database might have to be updated. The defunct Carabobo Safari stood tall with the biggest herd ever seen in South America, but they failed miserably to get any business done.
 
Last edited:
Mr.Ivory said:
How many elephants did Carabobo Safari have when it was open
Click to expand...
I do not know exactly how many, but from a video recorded in 1976, I could see at least five calves. I know it does not sound impressive for you guys from North America and Europe, but it still remains the largest grouping of African elephants ever seen in South America. Not even Belo Horizonte had a herd as large as Carabobo's, despite breeding African ellies twice.

Apparently, Carabobo Safari was not the only safari park in Venezuela to have elephants during the 1970s. There was another place, probably in Margarita Island called Auto Safari Margarita, and from a video taken in the 1970s, it seems they also had African elephants.

Just as a note: Carabobo Safari was in Valencia
 
Last edited:
Mr.Ivory said:
I am pleased to say that indeed three calves were born in 2021 a male calf to Bolita
Source ♂11032021 -> Petra Prager – zooelefanten.de

And a video from Facebook stated that 10 calves had been born as of January of this year
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1531642247319022

1.0 Sarabi (Unknown × Lider) 2017.05.16
1.0 Hoop ( Unknown × Independiente) 2017.08.29
0.1 Kibili (Unknown × Timida) 2018.08.10
0.1 Uturuki ( Unknown × Ceja) 2019.11.28
1.0 Arik ( Unknown × Independiente) 2020.07.29
1.0 Zoom ( Unknown × Lunar) 2020.08.08
1.0 Lester ( Unknown× Lider) 2020.11.11
1.0 Unnamed (Unknown x Bolita) 2021-03-11
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2021.00.00
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2021.00.00

Plus the three born this year makes Africam Safari have the largest breeding herd of African elephants in North America with a total of 23 African Elephants

Africam Safari - Puebla, Puebla, Mexico 9.8.5
1.0 Grande (WILD × WILD) 2003.00.00
1.0 Mediano (WILD × WILD) 2004.00.00
1.0 Chico (WILD × WILD) 2008.00.00
0.1 Independiente (WILD × WILD) 2005.00.00
0.1 Timida (WILD × WILD) 2006.00.00
0.1 Lunar (WILD × WILD) 2007.00.00
0.1 Bolita (WILD × WILD) 2008.00.00
0.1 Ceja (WILD × WILD) 2008.00.00
0.1 Lider (WILD × WILD) 2008.00.00
1.0 Sarabi (Unknown × Lider) 2017.05.16
1.0 Hoop ( Unknown × Independiente) 2017.08.29
0.1 Kibili (Unknown × Timida) 2018.08.10
0.1 Uturuki ( Unknown × Ceja) 2019.11.28
1.0 Arik ( Unknown × Independiente) 2020.07.29
1.0 Zoom ( Unknown × Lunar) 2020.08.08
1.0 Lester ( Unknown× Lider) 2020.11.11
1.0 Unnamed (Unknown x Bolita) 2021-03-11
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2021.00.00
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2021.00.00
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2023.00.00
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2023.00.00
0.0.1 Unnamed (Unknown x Unknown) 2023.00.00
Click to expand...
Any local Zoochat forum member has an update on Africam Safari's African elephant herd and - more important - can fill in the blanks above (2021-2023 which cows calved)?

It would also be worthwhile to know which bulls are actually the breeder(s)?

How large is the African elephant complex and how is it subdivided in different part exclosures and indoor and outdoor exhibitry.
 
Enzo, do you have more information about these 1970s South American safari parks - who built them or who supplied the animals?
 
It's sad to know that we are probably looking at the last elephants in South America. with the issues already mentioned by @Enzo there's also the fact that it's very unlikely that any Elephant from other places comes to the continent, thanks to the lack of money from our institutions and lack of institutions interested in sending animals here. Heck, at the moment it's more likely for Giant pandas to be imported to Brazil then elephants.
 
ShowMeElephants said:
Enzo, do you have more information about these 1970s South American safari parks - who built them or who supplied the animals?
Click to expand...
Hello, I sadly do not have any info on them. All I can tell you is that they were probably built with cash coming from the oil industry (back in the day, Venezuela was flourishing with richess thanks to the generous oil reserves in the Caribbean. The country was sometimes called "Saudi Venezuela" because of how rich it became from exporting oil and its citizens were known as "Dame dos" in Florida (one of the main travel destinations of the Venezuelan middle class) because their incomes were so high they'd usually buy two or more units of the same product). My biggest suspicion is that some rich businessman or one of the cities' mayors decided it was a good idea to build a safari park (+ an aquarium with river dolphins in the case of Valencia) and both decided to bring elephants and other African megafauna. I'd say the calves came from either South Africa, as did most of South America's African bush elephants, while the other animals could have come from North America, Europe or South Africa.
There's very little info on any of Venezuela's zoos online, so I'd doubt I could find more data about the elephants, I'm sorry.
 
Frankie_number_1_fan said:
Has there been a population list update recently for the region?
Click to expand...
For Africam Safari's African Elephant Herd the park has 20 individuals consisting of 13 males and 7 females. Only three of the males are mature bulls but still the park has quite a large amount of male calves which could present some interesting social groupings in the future. Not familiar with any other the other facilities holdings unfortunately.
 
Jonathan Petersson said:
For Africam Safari's African Elephant Herd the park has 20 individuals consisting of 13 males and 7 females. Only three of the males are mature bulls but still the park has quite a large amount of male calves which could present some interesting social groupings in the future. Not familiar with any other the other facilities holdings unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Interesting!

What is your source for the information you provide?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top