Asian/African Elephants Sharing the Same Habitats

The Horse Boy

The Horse Boy

Well-Known Member
Hey do y'all remember they days when a lot of zoos with elephants used to mix both Asians and Africans in the same habitat?
I noticed they were phasing out that approach more or less around the 2000's/2010's. And much of the enclosures that did don't meet today's standards of elephant husbandry.
 
The Horse Boy said:
Hey do y'all remember they days when a lot of zoos with elephants used to mix both Asians and Africans in the same habitat?
I noticed they were phasing out that approach more or less around the 2000's/2010's. And much of the enclosures that did don't meet today's standards of elephant husbandry.
Click to expand...
I have yet to see of these. That approach was phased out in my country a few years before I was born.

My local zoo (Rio de Janeiro, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) temporarily mixed an adult Asian elephant cow with two African elephants calves in 1995. They were quarantined for a month in her enclosure before being sent to their final destination, Brasília.

The São Paulo zoo (São Paulo, state of São Paulo, Brazil) mixed African and Asian elephants between 1973, when two calves arrived from Africa, and around 2000, when their last Asian elephant at the time passed away. The zoo did acquire two more Asian cows in 2012, but never mixed them with their late African counterpart, Terezita.

Rio de Janeiro had three female Asian elephants, two of which had been gifted by notable circus owner Orlando Orfei, in 1976. Since keeping all these animals proved to be too costly, the zoo "evicted" Margareth and Nery, so Orfei gave them to FZBH (Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil), which already had an African elephant cow at the time. The Belo Horizonte zoo imported two more Loxodonta africana the following year.

I am quite sure Topeka and Louisville still mix both species.
 
Enzo said:
I am quite sure Topeka and Louisville still mix both species.
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Yes but definitely not for long now. From the pics I've seen their enclosures look horrendously small and don't provide roaming and herd space like modern ones do.

I do have a fond memory back around fall 2007 when I went to the San Antonio Zoo with my parents, and they had the infamous Asian named Lucky with her herd mate as an African cow living in their tiny and hideous enclosure. A few years later I discovered her name was alport on the internet. Alport then died a month more or less after that visit, and all the bad publicity with their elephants started.
 
The Horse Boy said:
Hey do y'all remember they days when a lot of zoos with elephants used to mix both Asians and Africans in the same habitat?
I noticed they were phasing out that approach more or less around the 2000's/2010's. And much of the enclosures that did don't meet today's standards of elephant husbandry.
Click to expand...

It used to be quite common, before the push towards bettering husbandry came into full swing. I saw the mix at two facilities, one of which is long gone and the other persisted until a year or so ago. The number of places doing it has steadily declined as the older animals in those situations continue to pass, with many facilities choosing to end their elephant programs in kind.
 
Great Argus said:
It used to be quite common, before the push towards bettering husbandry came into full swing. I saw the mix at two facilities, one of which is long gone and the other persisted until a year or so ago. The number of places doing it has steadily declined as the older animals in those situations continue to pass, with many facilities choosing to end their elephant programs in kind.
Click to expand...
Do you remember which of the respective zoos they were at?
 
The Horse Boy said:
Hey do y'all remember they days when a lot of zoos with elephants used to mix both Asians and Africans in the same habitat?
I noticed they were phasing out that approach more or less around the 2000's/2010's. And much of the enclosures that did don't meet today's standards of elephant husbandry.
Click to expand...
I remember seeing a sort-of mix at Delhi zoo. They had a bush elephant confined to the stables of the elephant paddock and while I never saw it out with the Indian elephants, I assume they would allow it out sometimes. The bush elephant has had its own enclosure for some years now, thankfully.
 
Great Argus said:
It generally seems the two species get along though, at least for females.
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It does seem it was mostly older cows who arrived to these zoos around the mid-late 20th century before elephant management regulations became stricter and breeding them and keeping bulls became more important. The San Diego is such an example (I've seen it a few times in front of my own eyes) and I think was the only newly built exhibit that used that old fashioned approach til 2 years ago.
 
Here are some zoos that keep or have kept both African and Asian Elephants together since 2000:
- Louisville (still sharing space, but leaving this summer)
- Topeka (still there and sharing space)
- San Diego Zoo (last Asian died in 2023)
- Commerford Zoo (last African died in 2019)
- Winston Wildlife Safari (for only three years from 2015-2018 when their only Asian elephant died)
- Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (last of BOTH left in 2015, including the aforementioned Asian Elephant at Wildlife Safari)
- Woodland Park (last African died in 2014 and Asian left in 2015)
- Reid Park (last Asian left in 2012)
- Bowmanville (defunct in 2016, last African and Asian died in 2011 and 2013 respectively)
- Southwick's Zoo (both African and Asian died in the late 2000s)
- Edmonton (last and only ever African left in 2007)
- San Antonio (last African died in 2007 and Asian left in 2023)
- Philadelphia (separated in 2006, the zoo was out of elephants by 2009)
- Los Angeles (last held together in 2006, the last African Elephant left a year later)
- Hogle (last Asian died in 2004)
- Albuquerque (last African left in 2003)
- Vancouver (last African left in 2002, Asian left in 2003)
- Columbus (last held together in 2001)
- National (last African died in 2000)
 
Nile Hippo Expert said:
San Antonio (last African died in 2007 and Asian left in 2023)
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Sorry if my next point is a bit irrelevant to the topic of this thread, but san antonio does now plan on making a new wonderful facility for asians on an unused 15 acre plot of land owned by the zoo later this decade or so. They did initially plan on dramatically modernizing their former enclosure for 3 bachelor Africans when lucky passes, but that plan was under the former director Steve mckusker til he retired about 10 years ago and Tim morrow filled in. So these statements here still follow the theme here
 
The Horse Boy said:
Sorry if my next point is a bit irrelevant to the topic of this thread, but san antonio does now plan on making a new wonderful facility for asians on an unused 15 acre plot of land owned by the zoo later this decade or so.
Click to expand...

How is this relevant to the thread topic? Also any new Asian facility is a gamble right now so not worth getting too ahead.
 
If a zoo were to use both species of elephant in modern times, they would have to use two individual habitats as I think each breed has different habitat needs nowadays. I thibk most zoos are too physically and fiscally constricted for that, let alone a modern elephant habitat at all.
 
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Lincoln Park Zoo as held African and Asian elephant together during the eighties and nineties. Their last Asian elephant, Bozie, left in 1997, having lived with Suti (later renamed Binti) for several years. Suti remained until construction began on African Journey in 2000.
 
The Horse Boy said:
Hey do y'all remember they days when a lot of zoos with elephants used to mix both Asians and Africans in the same habitat?
I noticed they were phasing out that approach more or less around the 2000's/2010's. And much of the enclosures that did don't meet today's standards of elephant husbandry.
Click to expand...
In the UK this does not happen today, but historically it was not unusual; off the top-of-my-head I can recall London, Whipsnade, Bristol, Twycross, Paignton, Chessington, Chester, Flamingoland - I am sure there were more. This seemed to happen mainly in the 1960s-1980s when African elephants were more easily available and most places only had single houses and enclosures suitable for elephants. Because of the superficial similarities it was not understood that the two species fare far better kept separately.
 
Nile Hippo Expert said:
Here are some zoos that keep or have kept both African and Asian Elephants together since 2000:
- Louisville (still sharing space, but leaving this summer)
Click to expand...
Louisville Zoo moved their pair to the Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary earlier this week so now only Topeka Zoo remains in sharing African and Asian Elephants together in North America.
 
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