Are African forest elephants completely gone from zoos?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Do any zoo elephant aficionados know if Loxodonta cyclotis is completely gone from zoos? I have been looking through the thread archives looking for an answer...it looks like they disappeared from North America in 1991? Are there any left in European zoos?

Is there some residual forest elephant DNA in the current zoo elephant gene pool from historical breeding in zoos?
 
African forest elephants

When cyclotis [not recognised at the time as a full species] was available, there was virtually no elephant breeding in zoos, so there will not be any residual genes around. I would suggest that the only captive cyclotis will be in areas where they are found wild.
 
There are several forest elephants in Japan:

- 0.1 Hiroshima city zoo, 12 years old
-1.1 Yamaguchi Safari land, both 12 years old
-0.1 Tokuyama Municipal Zoo, 12 years old

If all put together that could make a nice breeding group, don't you think?
 
Dallaspachyderm said:
There are several forest elephants in Japan:

- 0.1 Hiroshima city zoo, 12 years old
-1.1 Yamaguchi Safari land, both 12 years old
-0.1 Tokuyama Municipal Zoo, 12 years old

If all put together that could make a nice breeding group, don't you think?
Click to expand...

Wow, I had no idea that there was cyclotis in Japan. Thanks for the info.
 
Thanks for the info Hyakko.

HyakkoShachi said:
There is still one male forest elephant left at the Abidjan zoo in the Ivory coast,appearently captive bred.

Bronx zoo as well as the ones in Brookfeild and Cincinatti appearently kept them in the past.
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The Cincinnati Zoo had a female African Forest Elephant during the 1930's. Her name was "Gimpy" and she was only six feet tall at the shoulder. She was one of the zoo's most iconic animals at the time. I think I have some pictures of her on my computer some where that I found here and there. I'll see if I can find them.

I was also reading some where that the Columbus Zoo had an African Forest Elephant during the 70's and 80's. Does anyone have any information about this?
 
there was of course also the "pigmy" elephant at the Bronx Zoo (I can't remember what its name was, or the year, off the top of my head)
 
HyakkoShachi said:
There is still one male forest elephant left at the Abidjan zoo in the Ivory coast,appearently captive bred.
Click to expand...

This zoo is in a desolate state. The elephant ("Can") is indeed captive bred but a female ! I wonder how reliable the information about cyclotis in Japan is ? Hopefully more reliable than the information about Jentinks duiker in Japan ...
 
Saro said:
I wonder how reliable the information about cyclotis in Japan is ? Hopefully more reliable than the information about Jentinks duiker in Japan ...
Click to expand...

Baby Elephant | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

picture of the female forest elephant at Yamaguchi
Feeding Elephants | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Just search "Hiroshima zoo" into flickr, for some reason the link didn't show up...

?? | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Tokuyama Municipal Zoo elephant... I can't tell if that is a forest elephant or not.

But Hiroshima and Yamaguchi definitely are!
 
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Are African forest elephants......

The Bronx 'pygmy' was 'Congo' about a hundred years ago. He is on the dust jacket of Crandall's 'The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity'.
I can't find my copy of the book at present, but believe he was shot in his late teens after becoming crippled with arthritis. He was reported to be bad-tempered, and nearly pinned Crandall to the wall.
 
I wonder if the Yamaguchi animals are going to breed, and if it is possible to bring the Hiroshima animal to Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi appears to have more space, and more forest elephants.
I fear that Hiroshima is going to breed her with the African bush male that they have...
 
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