Hakuna Matata, my apologies friend. I will do that from now on unless other forum members have a definite gender. I even regret referring to Frankie_number_1_fan as a she. Hopefully no one was offended.
I'd say he's probably going to be "stuck" in Miami for at least a few years yet while they evaluate the future of their elephant programs. Him leaving Miami would leave Nellie without a companion, so in order for him to move they'd need to bring in a second elephant for her or move her elsewhere; ending their asian program. He'll definitely be utilized at some point, but currently I don't really see any rush since I can't really see any facilities leaping at the oppertunity to take him on. Despite his value, he's still relatively young after all.
I think the old cow is the reason why their future plans are currently stagnant. Ongard is essentially there to he a companion for her until she dies to meet some of the AZA criteria
I do think she even past the "cougar" prime and may not want to put up with a young bull wanting to spar and possibly mount. I think she is in her 50s or 60s? I know Dahlip was one of the older bulls in USA when he passed. I have looked for news on Onguard and nothing yet. I just hope that he does not fall through the cracks, we are very lucky with the recent imports and more and more Asian elephant births but we need to keep the momentum going hence my post earlier today.
I'm certianly very interested to see what becomes of Miami's elephant programs. They seem to be getting along well managing both species, but do they have the space to rennovate both (or either) of their exhibits so that can continue?
Miami is currently the only zoo in America to put asian and african elephants in separate enclosures, which is the way it should go if zoos wanted to house both species in this day and age. It's been discussed here plentiful times.
On that note, I browsed Miami's map and the two species are held on relatively opposite sides of the zoo so potential expansions for both would be, technically, plausible without running into each other. However it does appear the zoo is pretty landlocked and ANY elephant expansion would be at the cost of other exhibits.
I suppose they technically could house both species with state of the art facilities and proper herds when the time comes. A relevant question just came to mind: how old are both exhibits and are the barns already big enough for proper herds?
Judging by the look of the barns on the map and the exhibit sizes, no neither are appropiate for long-term holding. If I'm remembering correctly their Asian barn only has four stalls.
I know there were rumblings/plans years back for Ongard to be joined by reproductive cows once Nellie and Dahlip passed away, but given the current trends of available African cows I'm more inclined to agree that they will lean towards Africans. Nevertheless it's something that could still be on the table, they could opt to rennovate their Asian complex with Ongard as their breeding bull. White Oak is in the state and could send over a few cows if pushed by the SSP.
Should Miami house a breeding herd White oak has a good sized matriline consisting of Shirley, her two daughters Mable and Piper, her granddaughter, her sister Aree aka Myrtle and her daughter, that would give them three breeding cows, plus two younger females.
To be honest, White oak never had that many breeding females to begin with some of their cows went years without breeding, and some of them never had calves at all. Only Aree, Mable, April and Piper were the only realistic options to breed, and I doubt they would send over half of their breeding females to a facility with a unproven bull, but I could see a move happening once they can no longer breed with the bulls the have, once Casey passes the only bulls that can breed are Barack with Aree and April, and what ever female calves they have, and either Osgood, Irwin, or P.T with Mable and Piper, with what ever daughters they have.
