Melbourne Zoo Dokkoon is pregnant!

glyn said:
Within both the Taronga and Melbourne herds the elephants, however cohesive do seem to spend time hanging around other individuals more than others Perhaps if all 4 females do end up having calves it might be more sensitive to the elephants to split the adults up and allow mothers and calves to stay together.
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Forming strong friendship bonds seems typical of elephants in captivity(and in the wild?) Sometimes these bonds can arise between comparative strangers rather than longterm familiars too.

At Whipsnade, the four adult females form two 'pairs' of friends- I believe each pair comprises one Whipsnade and one ex ZSL cow, not the two original Whipsnade and the two from London as you might expect. It seems to demonstrate a distinct choice on the individual elephants' part.

At Chester the newly aquired female 'Birma' which had previously lived alone in a French zoo, formed a strong attatchment to their old matriarch 'Sheba.'

EEP recommendations are to move mother/daughter dyads to form new groups so that female calves can stay with their relatives long term. This can't always be adhered to for practical reasons though e.g. the young female which was moved from Twycross to Whipsnade.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Just on that is Tara going to be used for breeding at all?
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I believe so. She has been in with the bull apparently but they aren't in any hurry for him to mate with her as she's still fairly young. At Whipsnade the bull(emmet) seems to live on his own much of the time- though he can see/touch cows through the paddock fences- and his night quarters are entirely seperate.
 
Pertinax said:
I believe so. She has been in with the bull apparently but they aren't in any hurry for him to mate with her as she's still fairly young. At Whipsnade the bull(emmet) seems to live on his own much of the time- though he can see/touch cows through the paddock fences- and his night quarters are entirely seperate.
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I'm sorry, but can I just say I think I am getting mixed up with Karishma and Tara, or are we? My fault sorry. Tara is Karishma's sister, Karishma is the one at Whipsnade currently, I know she is going to be used for breeding but are the cows in Twycross going to be used for breeding, hmm I think there was already a debate about this, Thanks anyway for the write back.
 
I'm excited she's due the 27th of December so hopefully when I come back from Malaysia the calf has been born!
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
I'm excited she's due the 27th of December so hopefully when I come back from Malaysia the calf has been born!
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Yeah last time I went I asked one of the keepers and he said that if it was born on christmas they'd call it jesus.
 
Jesus? well in that case I'm glad the public, rather than the keepers will be naming the calf!

with wild seas opening coinciding with a new baby elephant, Melbourne zoo is set for a bumper visitor influx this summer holidays...
 
phoenix said:
with wild seas opening coinciding with a new baby elephant, Melbourne zoo is set for a bumper visitor influx this summer holidays...
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they might be dissapointed, the viewing of elephant calves are usually after a month or so. ( well from what I know of) and even then they are usually only for an hour a day.

I'm keen on what it will be named, I'd presume it'd be based on Malay ( bong su) or Thai ( Dokkoon). Then again most zoos wish to promote thai baby elephant names even is the parents aren't thai.
 
hi
does anyone now if elephants have the ability to delay there calves birth, this may be while it has been so long. With all the hot weather around she might delay until there is a break in the heat.
 
I remember there was mention about it somewhere but I can't remember where. Can't confirm sorry.

Hope she's gonna be ok! Tommorrow is 43!!!!!!!
 
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