It seems that several forumsters air doubts about bull Vus'musi. Well, to be honest his life history has been met with some hurdles and obstacles on the way up the ladder. It has certainly not been easy on him and how he was shoved up state and back and disposed off once again.
Please all take note and bear in mind Vus'musi (b. 2004 in the wild with a wildborn sire) was the first bull calf by cow Ndulamitsi and had his brothers Lutsvando (b. 2010 - left SD-WAP in 2019 for Alabama) and Umzula-Zuli (b. 2012 still at the zoo ...) grew up alongside him within the SD-WAP herd.
TBH transferring a pubescent maturing bachelor bull to be with an experienced cow at Fresno - Chaffee Zoo was more a well-intended if desperate attempt to get him to breed at too young an age. For Goossens sake's, he was yet 10 and when he returned at 18 he was perhaps just about getting a clue as to what a bachelor maturing young bull should behave like.
For sure the cows Nolwazi (adult, wildborn 1994) and her daughter Amahle (maturing, and just settling in a primiparous cow ... between 2019-2022) at Fresno would not have considered Vus anything but a bachelor plaything annoyance at the corner of their herd instinct and most certainly the adult cow Nolwazi would not regard him as anything looking like a potential breeding partner. Sorry folks, it was more like a joke of a transfer in.
When he was returned to SD-WAP in 2022 he just presented a management challenge to the current matriarchal / cow elephant group and their offspring. Again, with his mother Ndula on site ..., not an ideal situation and certainly not natural ..., where bachelor bulls move away from their herd and get in with other bachelors in an adult bull's territory in the wilds and look in how the mature bulls get along with the cows. So, it was only inevitable that he would be retransferred out .., plus the planned move back of elder cow Shaba back to base and have her settle with the cow herd meant that sending out V. again was the best of both worlds (with San Diego Zoo now operating as a current (and future more ...) bachelor group for maturing bulls.
The timeframe 2022-2024 was rather light on any potential reinfroductions of V. to the younger cows in the herd .... and admittedly it seems to have taking him time to adjust to the younger cows Khosi, Phakamile and Qinisa as well. Despite what has been observed here ... it seems more like a good bit of wishful thinking and a questionmark if, yes when ... and perhaps that any of them ended up falling pregnant from his first moves into a breeding capacity.
Believe me, ... I really do hope he managed to get some of the younger cows pregnant ..., but right now San Diego WAP has been sitting on its laurels so long ... that it is imperative that the entire set of breedable cows at SD-WAP do demand that an experienced bang-on and proven bull does that the job on the double A.S.A.P.!!!!!
Please all take note and bear in mind Vus'musi (b. 2004 in the wild with a wildborn sire) was the first bull calf by cow Ndulamitsi and had his brothers Lutsvando (b. 2010 - left SD-WAP in 2019 for Alabama) and Umzula-Zuli (b. 2012 still at the zoo ...) grew up alongside him within the SD-WAP herd.
TBH transferring a pubescent maturing bachelor bull to be with an experienced cow at Fresno - Chaffee Zoo was more a well-intended if desperate attempt to get him to breed at too young an age. For Goossens sake's, he was yet 10 and when he returned at 18 he was perhaps just about getting a clue as to what a bachelor maturing young bull should behave like.
For sure the cows Nolwazi (adult, wildborn 1994) and her daughter Amahle (maturing, and just settling in a primiparous cow ... between 2019-2022) at Fresno would not have considered Vus anything but a bachelor plaything annoyance at the corner of their herd instinct and most certainly the adult cow Nolwazi would not regard him as anything looking like a potential breeding partner. Sorry folks, it was more like a joke of a transfer in.
When he was returned to SD-WAP in 2022 he just presented a management challenge to the current matriarchal / cow elephant group and their offspring. Again, with his mother Ndula on site ..., not an ideal situation and certainly not natural ..., where bachelor bulls move away from their herd and get in with other bachelors in an adult bull's territory in the wilds and look in how the mature bulls get along with the cows. So, it was only inevitable that he would be retransferred out .., plus the planned move back of elder cow Shaba back to base and have her settle with the cow herd meant that sending out V. again was the best of both worlds (with San Diego Zoo now operating as a current (and future more ...) bachelor group for maturing bulls.
The timeframe 2022-2024 was rather light on any potential reinfroductions of V. to the younger cows in the herd .... and admittedly it seems to have taking him time to adjust to the younger cows Khosi, Phakamile and Qinisa as well. Despite what has been observed here ... it seems more like a good bit of wishful thinking and a questionmark if, yes when ... and perhaps that any of them ended up falling pregnant from his first moves into a breeding capacity.
Believe me, ... I really do hope he managed to get some of the younger cows pregnant ..., but right now San Diego WAP has been sitting on its laurels so long ... that it is imperative that the entire set of breedable cows at SD-WAP do demand that an experienced bang-on and proven bull does that the job on the double A.S.A.P.!!!!!
