Frankie_number_1_fan
Well-Known Member
I've found Petra Prager's is the most reliable database (that I know of anyway). It seems to be updated once information is directly confirmed by a facility.
North American African Elephant Population 2025
- Thread starter E Maximus
- Start date
From what I've seen, Petra Prager's usually more reliable than Elephant Se. Elephant Se has a lot of loose ends and inaccurate information riddled across the site. Most are only minor, and there are a lot of assumptions too, ie. Callee being the sire of these calves without official confirmation.
Petra Prager is the most accurate one right now. There used to be another one run by some guy who was close to Emmen but he and the website has disappeared. Too bad, there was some great photos too. I think his handle name is Unt Bwe after one of the calves that was born at Emmen.
Incidentally, Petra Prager's site corroborated that Callee's the sire for Sedgwick County's calves!
It's most likely yes, but since it hasn't even been confirmed by the zoo yet it's still just an assumption. I would end up being quite surprised if he wasn't though!
There's a chance he could be the sire of the first three calves, yes.
However the first two calves were likely conceived just weeks after Callee's arrival from Omaha, so it's easy to put two and two together there. Obviously would be good to get confirmation though.
Last edited:
Thanks for the clarification. I felt that the zoo assumed that Ajani was unsuccessful so brought in Callee. But Ajani was moved to another zoo where there are breedable cows (as far I understand), but that zoo has not had any new calves or announced any pregnancies as of yet.
I wouldn't necessarily say that as far as 'breedable cows'. One of the cows is forty and never bred, and the other is currently 46, and she's only ever conceived via AI. So it's possible re. the latter, but it remains to be seen whether the zoo will look to breed her again. She only calved last year.
Gosh. You are right. I was thinking Ajani went back to the Indianapolis Zoo. His place of birth!
Which zoo is under consideration / being talked about here?
(I do miss full context with either Sedgwick or Omaha)
Frankie_number_1_fan
Well-Known Member
Toledo, if I am not mistaken.
Toledo is a tough one in terms of breeding potential....!
https://fb.watch/Cf0VJ4kgmc/?mibextid=wwXIfr
African elephant Ruth at the Milwaukee County Zoo has died.
African elephant Ruth at the Milwaukee County Zoo has died.
African Elephant Ruth at the Milwaukee County Zoo as humanly euthanized on the morning of September 20th according to the zoo's instagram. She was 43 years old.
Frankie_number_1_fan
Well-Known Member
Sad to hear, at 43 I'm sure many expected several more years from her despite the arthritis issues! I imagine this will push Milwaukee to make some decisions about their program going forward.
I am a little at odds here..., in all fairness. Is the conundrum that every AZA zoo is required to have minimum 3 elephants on site or is there another concern you are relating to?
I would assume that when the facility was built and - even more so - with the change of the zoo director at the helm they have already planned for a future without the 3 ladies (all at 43+ years of age incidentally) going forward!
I would even go so far as to observe that probably the new director would like to make some exhibit / architectural minor changes to the current exhibit (perhaps to accommodate more or other elephant social constructs like a bachelor herd in future or a breeding facility even ... (lest that has not been decided upon yet ... remain a facility primarily for elderly elephants - the latter of which I find hard to believe and settle upon).
Indeed unfortunate. Falling and being unable to stand for the second time in short order would indicate something was definitely wrong, or at minimum the arthritis being more pronounced than publicly known. It sounded like she was down inside holding too, at which point what options do you have...
Puts Milwaukee in the place of having to make decisions sooner than later too, which is unfortunate. Though wouldn't surprise me if that got put on the discussion table after the first fall.
Frankie_number_1_fan
Well-Known Member
Yes, I am referring to the AZA's 3-elephant requirement. It is, of course, very possible Milwaukee had plans on the table in the event of one of their girls passing for years now, but with Ruth passing relatively prematurely I'm sure things will need to happen sooner than anticipated. What those changes will be, we will have to wait and see!
Seeing as many facilities around the country have gone the route of retiring their geriatric elephants to a sanctuary or a retirement facility in recent years, I wouldn't be surprised if Milwaukee end up doing the same.
Either way it seems their focus will go towards bulls sooner rather than later. Whether that's acquiring a bull in the meantime to be able to 'socialise' with the remaining two cows, or sending the remaining pair to another facility and then acquiring a younger group of bachelors.